- Daily Faceoff’s NHL 2030 projection ranks Macklin Celebrini as the best player in hockey four years from now
- Connor McDavid slides to No. 3, with Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer landing at No. 2
- Read below for the full top-30 breakdown and where the rest of the stars fell
Connor McDavid is not the best player in hockey anymore. At least not by 2030.
Daily Faceoff’s Paul Pidutti released his updated projection of the NHL’s 30 best players four years from now, and Macklin Celebrini sits alone at the top. McDavid, who owned the No. 1 spot in last year’s version, drops to third. Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer squeezes in between them at No. 2.
Celebrini gave everyone plenty of reason to move him up. The Sharks center scored 45 goals and 115 points at 19 last season, finished fourth in Hart Trophy voting and piled up 10 points at the Olympics against the best players on the planet.
He has also already lapped his own draft class. Celebrini owns 178 career points, five shy of what the other nine players taken in the 2024 top 10 have produced combined:
Pidutti was direct about why McDavid slipped, and he pointed at the two kids who passed him.
“In 2030, McDavid will have completed 15 seasons and whether Celebrini, Bedard, Schaefer, or someone else, it’s increasingly likely that Number 97 won’t be Number One.”
Take a look at the kind of shift Celebrini pulled off last season:
Schaefer’s climb might be the wildest part of the whole thing. He was only an honorable mention a year ago. Then he scored 23 goals and drove play in both directions as an 18-year-old rookie defenseman.
Cale Makar rounds out the top four, with Connor Bedard fifth. Quinn Hughes, Rasmus Dahlin, Jack Hughes and Lane Hutson fill spots six through nine. Logan Thompson is the highest-ranked goalie at No. 10.
Gavin McKenna checks in at No. 12 without having played an NHL game yet. The 2026 first overall pick starts his rookie year in Toronto next to Auston Matthews, who fell 10 spots to No. 18.
Here is our first look at McKenna in Leafs colors:
Americans lead the list with 13 players, ahead of Canada’s nine, Sweden’s three, and two each from Russia and Germany. Finland has one.
The top five is all Canadian, though: Celebrini, Schaefer, McDavid, Makar and Bedard.
