Connor McDavid's 5 best goals ...

This season has seen Connor McDavid's transformation into a premier sharpshooter. McDavid, like many other greats in NHL history, appears to have simply decided during the summer that he would become a goal-scoring machine, and has spent the first half of the season doing just that.

The Edmonton Oilers star leads the league with 35 goals through Wednesday's games, and nearly all of them would be career highlights for practically any other player. His astonishing quickness and lightning-quick hands can frequently make even the most difficult maneuvers appear effortless.

Here’s a look back at the absolute best goals (for now) McDavid has scored throughout what has been a phenomenal campaign.

5. McDavid goes the distance in Music City (Dec. 13 @ NSH)

The biggest part of McDavid’s game that makes him better than everybody else from a raw skill perspective has to be his legs. McDavid skates like a genetically engineered hockey player that maximizes efficiency in every stride to blow past defenders and leave goalies cowering in fear.

Combined with a shot that has been elevated from great to downright elite, you get the crux of what makes this goal against the Nashville Predators so special. McDavid picks the puck up at centre ice, reaches breakneck speed in the blink of an eye, then goes to work.

4. Connor goes Category 5 (Nov. 10 @ CAR)

McDavid starts this play on the perimeter in a seemingly not-so-dangerous position, but there's no such thing as a bad spot for the league’s preeminent superstar.

The Oilers captain makes a quick cut to the inside on his world-class edges, then uses his unbelievable mitts to go to work on a Carolina team that can only pray it won’t end up on a list like this one.

3. McMagic at the Mad House (Oct. 27 @ CHI)

It’s hard to believe given his prolific scoring rate, but McDavid somehow only has two hat tricks so far this season. His first of the year came on opening night against the Vancouver Canucks as the Oilers gave their Pacific rivals an apt preview of where their season was headed.

McDavid’s only other hat trick this year came against the Chicago Blackhawks, themselves looking for their own franchise-level Connor to steer the ship back on course. Chicago's futility shouldn’t take anything away from McDavid, who puts on his Superman cape and does it all himself on a gorgeous go-ahead goal for the Oilers.

2. Goodnight, Golden Knights (Nov. 20 vs. VGK)

You can’t put together a McDavid best-of list without showing off some overtime heroics. With all the extra space during 3-on-3 OT, McDavid goes from cheat code to downright unstoppable, and that’s no better exemplified than on this doozy against the Vegas Golden Knights. With time and space in the neutral zone, McDavid picks up the puck and goes to town on a hapless Golden Knights trio.

First, McDavid outmuscles Alex Pietrangelo with ease around the outside, then shrugs off Chandler Stephenson before flipping a quick snapshot roof-down past Adin Hill for the OT winner.

1. McDavid puts Zegras in the spin cycle (Jan. 11 @ ANA)

It’s not often Trevor Zegras is on the wrong side of a highlight-reel goal, but when you’re going head-to-head with McDavid, you might just get torched.

As the great Danny Gallivan would say, McDavid hits Zegras with a Savard-ian Spin-o-rama that would make Serge Savard himself proud, twisting the NHL 23 cover boy into knots with the cheekiest of moves.