Hello everyone, today I am going to decide who is better between McDavid and Draisaitl. Last time McDavid got in the lead by winning the categories of Skating and Stickhandling. Draisaitl’s only win is in his shot so far.

First up today is the category physicality.

McDavid and Draisaitl both are more offensive minded players. Draisaitl is a sniper and McDavid is a playmaker. I think Draisaitl wins this one, because even though McDavid has double the amount of hits, a lot of the time McDavid doesn’t fight for the puck unless it is right by him. Draisaitl will stick check people and pin guys or get in a board battle a lot more than McDavid. Obviously Draisaitl is able to do this because of his size, but if McDavid utilized his speed he could also be physical. I think Draisaitl also needs to be more physical though, because McDavid has so much speed he doesn’t fight people to keep the puck, he just blows right by them, whereas Draisaitl fights people away. Regardless, Draisaitl wins this one.

Next is Defense.

I think Draisaitl is actually the winner in this too. McDavid doesn’t play much in the defensive zone without the puck. Draisaitl will cover the people he is supposed to, but McDavid does not always do that. When McDavid’s own team has the puck he will work to get open, but when the other team has it, he just circles around them and doesn’t work in the corner’s or along the boards that much. Draisaitl will do his job though, so he wins this one as well.

The final category is Hockey IQ

McDavid wins this one by a lot. He is always looking for the open ice he can skate to or for the open players he can pass to. Or he is getting open so he can get the pass. Draisaitl is also doing that but he does not do it as good as McDavid. Draisaitl is better at just plowing through and finding guys open that way, but McDavid creates space and because he has better hockey IQ he doesn’t need to plow through as much.

After all the categories are ranked, it is tied 3-3. However, McDavid is better because the ones he lost he would have to slightly tweak his game to dominate in those categories, and Draisaitl would have to do years of work to get as good as McDavid in the ones he lost. So because of McDavid’s potential for all the categories, he comes out on top.

Here is a link to the NHL website.