Matthews or McDavid: who should go first in your playoff pool

Ok, you’ve got the first overall pick in your hockey playoff pool.

Who you taking?

Is it even a question. It’s not up for debate.

You’d have to be a fool not to pick Connor McDavid.

Yeah, you might think the Maple Leafs are going all the way and want to pick Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner. Or maybe you got with Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon is a safer pick, because the Avalanche won last year and could repeat as champs.

Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov? Boston’s David Pastrnak? New York’s Patrick Kane?

All good picks.

However, this isn’t a trying to predict who’s going to be in the final type of discussion. This isn’t gambling on a team. Or even gambling on a player.

This is about a sure thing.

And the Oilers could go out in the second round and I’d still have McDavid as my top pick.

Here’s why: McDavid is averaging nearly two points a game this year — two points a game!

Last year, he finished the playoffs with 33 points in 16 games. Now think about that for a second. Even if the oilers went out in the second round and McDavid played in just a dozen games, he’s still probably going to end up with somewhere around 20.

Most years, that’s good enough to be in top-5 in playoff scoring.

In fact, last year he led the playoffs in scoring. And that was despite not reaching the final and despite playing in seven fewer games than Tampa Bay’s highest scorer.

This year, with a path to the conference final that potentially goes through LA and Vegas, he has a good chance to get back in the Final Four. Heck, I’ve picked the Oilers to reach the final.

So McDavid is going No. 1.

The big question is who goes next?

Again, it’s a no-brainer. Again, it’s another Edmonton player.

With three Oilers among the top-10 in scoring this year — McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — you should probably be picking a lot of them.

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