I DON’T THINK (McDAVID) IS IN THE CONVERSATION FOR MVP.

That hasn’t been the case with McDavid this year. He’s certainly been great and has dominated the nightly highlight reel. But he hasn’t separated himself from the pack like he did a year ago, when he finished 11 points ahead of Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane in the scoring race.

As of Monday, McDavid trailed Kucherov by four points and Malkin by three, but was also only three points ahead of Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux.

With Lemieux, the gap between him and Gretzky was impossible to ignore.

“He was so great, but they were so bad,” said TSN analyst Dave Poulin, who during his career with the Philadelphia Flyers had the unenviable task of trying to shut down Lemieux. “We went through a stretch where we simply did not lose to Pittsburgh even with Mario. But don’t forget, we were allowed to win 8-6 in those days.”

Edmonton’s problem is similar: If McDavid doesn’t score, the team doesn’t win. Even when he does score, it’s often not enough. But it’s not just McDavid’s season that is affected by his team’s place in the standings.

MacKinnon (81 points) and New Jersey’s Taylor Hall (74 points) are both capable of winning the Hart Trophy this season, just as long as their respective teams qualify for the playoffs. The Devils currently have the first wild card spot in the East, while the Avalanche are one point ahead of the Kings for the second wild card spot in the West.

Edmonton was 13th in the West, 16 points back of a playoff spot. For McDavid, it looks worse because the Oilers were pre-season favourites to win the Stanley Cup.

With MacKinnon and Hall, it’s the opposite. Both are playing for teams that were awful a year ago and were supposed to be worse this year. Instead, they are the reasons for their moderate levels of success.

No one is lumping McDavid in with the Oilers’ failures, but it’s difficult to separate him from them.

“Nobody is going to take away his greatness or anything like that,” Errey said, “but I don’t think he’s in the conversation for MVP. I think of him as a top-three player in the league, but I don’t think of him as an MVP this season just because of their team and he’s the leader of their team and because they kind of failed this year, to be honest with you.”

In the process, the team failed McDavid as well.