Mailbag: Connor McDavid to 100, Sidney Crosby to 50

Here is the Dec. 14 edition of Dan Rosen's weekly mailbag, which will run every Wednesday through the course of the 2016-17 NHL season. If you have a question, tweet it to @drosennhl and use #OvertheBoards.
Do you think Connor McDavid will finish with over 100 points, and will Sidney Crosby get over 50 goals this season? -- @PHemley08
Yes to both.

McDavid is on pace for 99.9 points, so his margin for error is thin. He has 39 points in 32 games and is on pace to play in all 82. I don't see why he can't continue to score at the pace he is on (1.21875 points per game) or slightly better. That's realistic for him because he's that good and that impossible to defend.
Crosby is on pace for 69 goals. He has 21 in 23 games. He can max out at 76 games because he missed the first six games of the season with a concussion. Crosby won't score 69 goals. He won't continue to score nearly a goal per game, but even with a regression I think 50 goals is manageable for him because of the start he's had to the season. He is scoring in all kinds of ways, even using the skills he honed as a baseball player growing up to bat pucks out of the air and into the net. I think he'll get to 50, maybe even 55. It looks like he has a goal-scorer's mentality again, after it looked like he had a playmaker's mentality last season.

Do you see the San Jose Sharks trading for a goalie? -- @bradprather
No. I think they should use backup Aaron Dell more than they have. They need to trust him. He has earned it through a very small sample size. He has won three of his four starts and has a 2.16 goals-against average and .926 save percentage (10 goals on 125 shots) in five appearances. He made 30 saves in a 4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. He starts have come against the Hurricanes and New York Islanders, not exactly the cream of the crop in the Eastern Conference, but he should get more starts in the coming months. The Sharks need him to start more. Martin Jones is on pace to start 70 games. That's simply too many if the Sharks want to get back to the Stanley Cup Final. If they don't feel Dell can start another 10-15 games this season, then they should try to find someone they think can, but Dell deserves the chance. He's earned it by being a solid backup getting limited work.
If the New York Islanders continue to lose, does the idea of Garth Snow trading John Tavares for top prospects/picks become more realistic? -- @armcontrolmick
Oh dear lord, I hope not. I can't even imagine the reaction around the NHL and the fallout from that if they were to trade Tavares. It would be cataclysmic. The Islanders should be doing everything in their power to convince Tavares to sign a contract extension at noon ET on July 1, 2017, and not one minute later. He's the franchise, but you already knew that. No amount of picks or prospects can replace Tavares. What the Islanders instead need to do is figure out what is going on with Ryan Strome and if he'll ever be an impact player for them. They need to figure out their goaltending situation because it's ridiculous that they've gone this far with three goalies on the NHL roster. The Islanders also are playing better for the most part. It's going to be hard, if not impossible, for them to make up the ground they need to make up in the Metropolitan Division because it's so stacked at the top with the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers winning a lot. But trade Tavares? Oh dear lord, no. For the love of all that's holy, no.
What justification is there to keep Jake Guentzel off of the NHL roster, when only Conor Sheary is producing on the left wing? I understand sheltering rookies and whatnot, but watching Guentzel play in the AHL, he always stands out. He doesn't belong there. -- @_MAF29
The justification now is the Penguins look unbeatable, so there is absolutely no reason to change anything. They have scored 35 goals in their past six games and have, of course, won them all. Guentzel had a nice showing in his five-game stint from Nov. 21-30, scoring three goals and assisting on another. But Chris Kunitz came back healthy, and the Penguins wanted to go with the veteran instead of the rookie. I can't blame them. It's a trust factor. I do believe Guentzel will get another run in Pittsburgh this season, and as long as he's not traded, I imagine he'll be a full-time player with the Penguins next season, but for now there's no reason to look for excuses to make a change for the sake of change. Let Guentzel continue to flourish in the American Hockey League, because if he does and he gets another call from the Penguins, he'll come back to Pittsburgh confident in his game and confident in knowing that he can perform and produce in the NHL. Remember, this is Guentzel's first full season as a professional. Playing well in the AHL is a good thing. No need to rush him when the Penguins are playing as well as they have been playing.

Goaltending controversy brewing for the New York Rangers? -- @christinahealz
Not yet, but the longer Henrik Lundqvist is a backup, the better chance of there being a goalie controversy in the Big Apple. I have to give a lot of credit to everyone involved in this so far, from Lundqvist to Antti Raanta to Alain Vigneault to the Rangers players on the whole, because nobody has even hinted at a controversy that might be bubbling under the surface. I have covered Lundqvist long enough to know he's seething inside, but he's smart enough and diplomatic enough to know now is not the time to be selfish and say something that would absolutely be used against him. He's not the one in control of who plays; all he can control is how he plays when he does get the chance. Frankly, he's been just average for a lot of this season; at least average based on the expectations we have for him. Lundqvist,
as I wrote Monday
, has been guilty of allowing the third goal too often this season, that one goal that he would love to have back but can't have back and would never give up if he were on his game. He's been excellent in 12 of his starts (10-1-1 when allowing two or fewer), but he also has given up three or more eight times and is 2-6-0 in those games. The margin for error in the NHL is razor thin, and when you allow that third goal, typically you're going to lose the game. Lundqvist has to be better than he's been, but I think he will be when he gets a chance to get back in there.