The title may seem hyperbolic, but looking at the players who’ve been slapped with the “rising star” label over the last few years, DeBrincat was as good or better than many of them this season.
Yes, he had a scoring slump in the 2019-20 season despite having excellent underlying metrics, but DeBrincat course-corrected during a breakout 2021 season, and it still feels like he’s only getting started.
For simple comparison, let’s look at where DeBrincat falls across multiple categories among the other top forwards this season who are 25 or younger and have played at least 800 minutes.