What a Stanley Cup Could Mean for Connor McDavid Cards

Connor McDavid’s Fast Start Is Adding More Heat to His Market

Connor McDavid has opened the season at a pace that is hard to ignore, piling up 26 points in nine games for the Edmonton Oilers. That is the best start of his 12-year career, and it has come with six goals, 20 assists, a plus-17 rating, and an average of 2.89 points per game.

The Oilers have matched that production with a 7-1-1 start and are set to host the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes tonight. For hockey fans, McDavid’s early-season numbers are another reminder of how dominant he can be. For card collectors, they raise a familiar question: what happens to his market if he finally wins the Stanley Cup?

McDavid’s Pace Is Entering Historic Territory

Through nine games, McDavid has become the fastest player in NHL history to reach 20 assists. The previous mark was 20 assists in 10 games, a record shared by Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Pat LaFontaine.

He also has 26 points through nine games, which is two more than the 24 Gretzky had at the same point in his record 215-point 1985-86 season. At his current pace of 2.89 points per game, McDavid is projecting toward 243 points over a full season, which would surpass Gretzky’s 215-point record by 28 points.

For more collecting context, read Break Rules to Read Before Joining: Multi-Player Cards, Retired Teams, and Points.

McDavid’s career high remains 153 points in the 2022-23 season, when he averaged 1.87 points per game. Even if he merely matched that scoring rate the rest of the way, he would still finish near 166 points, which would be a new career best. If he performed at last season’s pace, he would still land around 152 points.

The numbers help explain why the conversation around McDavid’s legacy keeps expanding. The only major item still missing from his resume is a Stanley Cup.

What a First Cup Has Meant for Other NHL Greats

History suggests that the timing of a first championship can shape how a player is remembered. Some of the game’s all-time greats won early, while others waited more than a decade before lifting the Cup.

Related coverage includes Connor McDavid’s Scorching Start Has His Card Market Watching Two Possible Milestones.

That distinction matters when comparing career arcs. If McDavid were to win in 2027, he would be 30 years old and in his 12th season. That timeline would place him closer to the profiles of players such as Steve Yzerman and Alex Ovechkin, rather than Sidney Crosby, who won early.

The source material points to one important hobby lesson from recent NHL history: selling the news is real. In the days before the Vegas Golden Knights clinched the Cup, Jack Eichel’s 2015-16 Upper Deck Young Guns PSA 10 sold in the $138 to $185 range. After the championship, sales moved to the $225 to $232 range. By that August, prices had fallen back to around $107.

That pattern suggests that a championship can create a short-term spike, but the effect may not last forever on a widely held rookie card.

Connor McDavid’s Young Guns Already Has a Large Market

McDavid’s 2015-16 Upper Deck Young Guns #201 is already one of the most closely watched modern hockey cards. In PSA 10, it averaged $3,191 across 44 sales over the previous three months, according to Card Ladder data cited in the source. The most recent sale listed was $3,450 on October 20, up 15%.

That price movement came even as collectors reported softer conditions across modern hockey cards. In other words, McDavid’s flagship rookie has continued to draw attention regardless of broader market softness.

Supply is a major reason the card behaves differently from scarcer McDavid issues. The source notes that McDavid’s PSA 10 Young Guns supply is 2.4 times higher than the comparable 2005 rookie cards of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. It also trades in much greater volume, with nearly twice as many sales as Ovechkin’s over the same window and almost three times Crosby’s.

That matters because a card with thousands of PSA 10 copies can absorb a demand spike differently than a low-population autograph or patch card. If a Cup run creates a surge of interest, the base Young Guns is the card most likely to feel it first and most visibly.

How McDavid’s Rookie Card Has Reacted Before

The McDavid Young Guns has already shown that it can swing sharply with the market and with the player’s on-ice results. The source cites a price around $800 during mid-2020, a peak between $5,600 and $6,332 during 2021, and a low of $2,025 during the 2025 playoffs.

That kind of range shows how much attention the card can attract when McDavid is at the center of the hockey conversation. It also shows that even a card with elite status can move up and down with broader collector sentiment, playoff outcomes, and the overall state of the hobby.

For collectors watching the market now, the key question is whether a championship would produce a lasting change or just another short-lived spike. Based on the patterns cited in the source, the answer may depend on which McDavid card is being discussed.

Scarce McDavid Autographs and Patch Cards May React Differently

While the Young Guns rookie is the most visible McDavid card in the market, the source argues that his scarcer rookie autographs and patch cards are the ones more likely to hold a championship-driven boost.

Two examples stand out: the 2015-16 SP Authentic Future Watch Autograph /999 and the 2015-16 Upper Deck The Cup Rookie Patch Autograph /99. These cards are much lower population than the Young Guns, which means they do not have the same flood of available copies that could mute a price jump.

The source specifically notes that there are not thousands of these cards waiting to appear on eBay if McDavid wins a Cup. That scarcity can make them more responsive to a career-defining moment, especially if collectors decide that a championship changes how they view his place in hockey history.

One example cited is a Connor McDavid 2015-16 Upper Deck The Cup Rookie Patch Autograph #197, numbered to 99 and graded PSA 10 with a 10 autograph. Cards like that sit in a different category from the flagship Young Guns because their supply is limited and their appeal is tied to both performance and rarity.

The Gretzky Chase Could Matter More in the Short Term

Even with the championship conversation building, the source suggests that McDavid’s scoring pace may be the bigger immediate driver for his market if he continues at this level. If he remains above 2.5 points per game into February of 2027, the chase for Gretzky’s points record could become the more powerful short-term story.

That creates an interesting split for collectors. A Stanley Cup would strengthen McDavid’s legacy and likely add another layer to his already elite hobby profile. But the most visible price reaction on his flagship rookie may still come from the combination of his scoring pace, media attention, and the market’s tendency to react during a run.

In that sense, McDavid’s cards are already priced as the cards of the NHL’s best player. The bigger question is whether a championship would push his market into a new tier, or simply create another spike before prices settle back down.

For now, his start to the season has kept the spotlight on both his on-ice production and his card market, with the Oilers’ early success adding another layer to a season that already has historical implications.