Pog is now on 14 stage wins in 5 tours.
Hinault had 28 in 8, so Pog is a bit behind that and Hinault didn't have the best luck with injuries ("small hole in my head" including).
Merckx had 34 in 7. Unlikely unless Jonas now fades, Remco doesn't advance as expected and no-one else emerges to challenge.
Cav has 35 in 14. Pog could beat that if he kept going at his current rate, but how likely is that? Not even Cav has kept going at his early rate.
Both Hinault and Merckx benefitted from a higher proportion of individual time trials in their time. Hinault won 20 of his
28 31 opportunities, Merckx 16 of 26 (my figures, checked a few times but can't 100% be guaranteed accurate). Merckx was on 16/21 before his final tour when he was past his best. That's not to say Pogacar could have achieved similar figures since his strike rate so far is 2 out of 7. On balance it doesn't look as though Pogacar is ever going to dominate the ITT to the same extent.
Generally speaking overall contenders don't regard road stage wins as their highest priority. Sometimes it's not in their interests to win stages when able to do so. Even the Cannibal himself gifted a stage to Roger Pingeon in the 1969 Tour, perhaps to gain popularity with the French? Poulidor might have been a more useful recipient of his generosity. Maybe he was torn to shreds in the Belgian press and vowed never to make the same mistake again.
Merckx had 18 road stages by the end of his fifth Tour. Pogacar can't equal that strike rate, but Merckx never won another.
If Pogacar wants to be the greatest ever he'll need to surpass some of Merckx's achievements. Even if he could do it I don't think total stage wins is a meaningful enough measure, but three GTs in a calendar year definitely would be.
Olav Kooij might win a lot of stages in the future.
When they asked Fred Trueman if he thought anyone would break his 300+ test wicket record he said "If they do, they'll be bloody tired".
Annoyingly I can't find the Youtube clip I know I've seen recently, but I'm pretty sure Fred didn't use the B word.
Edit: Hinault contested 31 ITTs, not 28. I transposed the wrong number. Adding the one he didn't contest in 1980, that means his tours averaged 4 ITTs, which explains how he racked up stage wins so quickly. And at least 3 of his road wins were in bunch sprints. Quite a beast.
