Connor McDavid just became the first player rated 99 overall in EA Sports NHL 27, and the Edmonton Oilers fan base is not united on it.
This week, EA Sports announced McDavid as the inaugural member of its so called 99 Club, treating the number like something brand new.
Except it isn't. Ray Bourque hit 99 overall back in NHL 94. Mario Lemieux was rated 100 that same year. Sergei Fedorov followed at 99 in NHL 95.
That history lesson didn't stop the internet from arguing anyway. Some fans called the rating long overdue given McDavid's numbers last season.
He put up 48 goals, 90 assists and 138 points, finishing at a plus-17. Those aren't down year numbers by any read of the stat sheet.
Other fans zeroed in on his defensive game instead, arguing a truly complete 99 overall shouldn't lean almost entirely on offense.
Why the debate says more about EA than McDavid
The bigger complaint wasn't really about McDavid at all. It was about EA rewriting its own history to sell a marketing moment.
Critics pointed out close to a dozen players hit 99 or 100 overall in the 90s and early 2000s, including Jaromir Jagr at 100 in NHL 2000.
The predictable dig came too, fans asking how McDavid deserves 99 without a Stanley Cup, ignoring that a championship is a team accomplishment, not a rating category.
One fan pitched a cleaner rollout entirely, capping every player including the legends at 98 except Wayne Gretzky, then letting McDavid join him in a real 99 Club.
EA turning a real number into a fake first is the actual problem here, not whether McDavid earned it. He clearly did.
Edmonton finished last season at 41-30-11 with 93 points, second in the Pacific Division, with McDavid pushing the attack every night.
Whatever NHL 27 says on the cover, Oilers fans get to find out this fall if a 99 overall rating means anything once real games start again.
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Does Connor McDavid actually deserve a 99 overall rating in NHL 27?
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