Everyone knew, going into the 2015 NHL Draft, that Connor McDavid was an extraordinary talent.
The word “generational” is overused in a desperate please-like-my-sport bid, but a hockey generation of about ten years makes some kind of sense: in every group that grew up watching the last one or two The Guys, there’s another one or two The Guys. McDavid was eight years old, give or take some months, when Sidney Crosby was drafted.
More to the point, the players who get called “generational” are players who everyone knows, even before their draft year: hey.