Connor McDavid made history this year as the first player in the EA Sports NHL to join their inaugural ‘99 Club,’ garnering a maxed-out 99 overall rating in NHL 27.
McDavid isn’t the first player with a 99 rating – for those of us that grew up before the turn of the millennium, players like Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Peter Forsberg, Jaromir Jagr and more were able to achieve 99 and even 100 overall ratings – but he’s the first in the modern games, since NHL 2000 which came out out on the original PlayStation.
We can probably agree that, of any player in today’s game, McDavid is the right choice for a 99 rating.
However, is a max-rated player something the game even needs?
That’s the question DZ asks and attempts to answer.
McDavid may be the first player to join EA’s much-discussed 99 Club, but now that the club exists, there will probably be other players to follow in his footsteps sooner or later.
Who do you think should be the next 99 overall player in an NHL game? Is there anybody in the league right now that deserves a 99 rating down the line, or should it be kept sacred as true McDavid territory for at least a little longer?