NHL Central Scouting presents the talents of the future! The NHL has reached the halfway point, here are the most interesting statistics

NHL Central Scouting’s youth rankings have been released, monitoring players who could be eligible for future NHL drafts. At the same time, we bring you the most interesting statistics of the first half of this year’s NHL season. 

In the middle of the 2023/2024 season, NHL Central Scouting came up with an evaluation of young players who could aspire to the NHL in the coming years.

As expected, Canadian Macklin Celebrini of Boston University leads the list of players based in North America, while Konsta Helenius of Jukurit, Finland, dominates the rest of the world.

A selection of the most interesting statistics of the first half of the 2023/2024 season:

Individual statistics

Connor McDavid is in the top tier of scoring after a poor start – and the Oilers are back in the playoffs. But he’s still double digits behind two 60-point scorers. Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon, who are seeking their fourth Art Ross Trophy in a row.

Nathan MacKinnon has covered 252.55 km this season, the equivalent of nearly six marathons, according to NHL EDGE data. Nikita Kucherov, who has a two-point lead on MacKinnon in the Art Ross Trophy battle for the competition’s most productive player, is second in the NHL with 243.71 kilometres.

Rasmus Kupari (38.54 mph Oct. 17) has had the NHL’s top top speed for more than two months this season. But that lead has changed hands four times since late December. Valery Nichushkin (38.55 km/h on Dec. 21) passed Kupari, but his reign was short-lived as he was surpassed by MacKinnon (38.7 km/h on Dec. 23) just before the holiday break.

MacKinnon’s lead lasted just zero playing days as Brayden Point (38.87 km/h on 27 December) took the reins just after Christmas before being dethroned by current leader Owen Tippett, who clocked 38.96 km/h in the final seconds of Wednesday’s overtime.

Evan Bouchard has recorded 60 shots on goal this season with a top speed of 90+ mph, nearly double the next-hardest scorer, Alexander Ovechkin’s 35. A total of 31 shots have been recorded at 100+ mph this season, with Victor Hedman (4) and Radko Gudas (3) topping that list. Gudas, by the way, tops the list of hardest hitters with a top shot of 163.65 mph.

Nikita Kucherov (28-41-69 in 42 games) leads the race for the Art Ross Trophy and could become the first player to reach 70 points this season. While Nathan MacKinnon (22-45-67 in 42 games) enters the second half of the competition after scoring in each of Colorado’s 23 home games. Kucherov already won the Art Ross Trophy in the 2018-19 season.

MacKinnon is trying to become the second Avalanche/Nordiques player to lead the NHL in scoring (Peter Forsberg in 2002-03). Connor McDavid (16-40-56 in 36 games) has scored in 21 of 22 games since Nov. 20 and is eighth in the Art Ross Trophy race. As recently as Nov. 20, he was outside the top 100 NHL players. One point ahead of McDavid in the Canadian scoring charts is David Pastrnak with 57 points.

Quinn Hughes (11-40-51 in 42 games) has a three-point lead over Cale Makar (9-39-48 in 37 games) at the top of the scoring among defensemen, and both defensemen are on pace to finish the season with triple-digit points. It would be the first season in NHL history in which multiple defensemen have accumulated 100 points.

Connor Bedard (15-18-33 in 39 games), who will be out for a few weeks with an injury, has a nine-point lead among NHL rookies over Marco Rossi (12-12-24 in 40 games) and Adam Fantilli (11-13-24 in 42 games). Luke Hughes (7-16-23 in 39 games) leads the defensemen in goals and points.

Two Czechs lead the team statistics in Canadian scoring. David Pastrnak dominates the Boston Bruins’ most productive players (25-32-57) and Tomas Hertl leads the San Jose Sharks (13-16-29)

Team stats

Nine teams that did not qualify for the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs either occupy a playoff spot or are within three points of it.

More than 4,000 goals have been scored so far in the 2023-24 season, marking the first time in 30 years that a score of 6.3 goals per game or higher has been achieved in consecutive seasons (6.4 in 650 games played in the 2022-23 season).

In nearly half of all games, the losing team eventually managed to bring the game to a winning conclusion, with the 120 third period comebacks being the most at this stage of a season in NHL history.

Vancouver (28-11-3, 59 points) leads the Pacific Division. While Philadelphia (21-14-6, 48 points) and Nashville (22-18-1, 45 points) are currently in the wild card positions in the Eastern and Western Conferences, with all three clubs missing the playoffs last season. The other six teams that did not make the playoffs last year are within three points of the playoff positions: Pittsburgh, Detroit, Washington, St. Louis, Calgary and Arizona.

The Winnipeg Jets (12-0-2 since Dec 13) and Seattle Kraken (10-0-2 since Dec 12) have recorded record point streaks. And they moved into first place in the league table and within striking distance of the last Western Conference wild-card spot, respectively. Winnipeg was in 10th place in the NHL prior to the start of their series. While Seattle was five points behind the playoffs in their conference entering the game on December 12.

NHL teams have a 96.4 percent fill rate in the stands this season, the highest at this stage in the last 10 seasons.

More than 34,926,000 fans in North America tuned in to NHL games. Across both ESPN and TNT, viewership is 26% higher than this time last year. In Canada, Hockey Night in Canada is 2% higher and Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey is 10% higher than the previous year.

Source: NHL