Edmonton Oilers captain and centre Connor McDavid of Richmond Hill, Ontario won the 2026 Ted Lindsay Award on Sunday according to David Satriano of nhl.com. The award is presented annually to the best player in the National Hockey League as voted on by members of the National Hockey League Players’s Association.
This is the fifth time that McDavid has won the award as he was previously selected in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2020-21, 2022-23, and 2025-26. The only other player in NHL history to win the award five times was Oilers centre Wayne Gretzky of Brantford, Ontario. Gretzky was honoured in 1981-82, 1982-83, 1983-84, 1984-85, and 1986-87. At the time Gretzky won the award, the award was known as the Lester B. Pearson Award.
McDavid has won two major awards from this past season. The other was the Art Ross trophy for leading the NHL with 138 points. In 2025-26, McDavid had 48 goals and 90 assists. He was also a +17 with 44 penalty minutes, 54 power-play points, two shorthanded points, four game-winning goals, 306 shots on goal, 457 faceoff wins, 30 blocked shots, 40 hits, 32 takeaways and 134 giveaways.
McDavid’s first shorthanded point was a shorthanded assist on a goal by Leon Draisaitl into an empty net to close out the scoring with one minute and 13 seconds left in the third period in a 3-1 Oilers win over the Vancouver Canucks on October 11. McDavid’s second shorthanded point was a shorthanded goal and came on an all-Canadian goal in a 3-1 Oilers win over the Boston Bruins on December 18, 2025. McDavid scored from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of Burnaby, British Columbia and defenseman Darnell Nurse of Hamilton, Ontario at 1:41 of the third period to close out the scoring.
