NHL Star of the Month Nathan MacKinnon, other honorees were goalie Skinner and forward Pettersson.

The NHL has announced its top players for the month of January, with Nathan MacKinnon dominating the NHL’s second man in scoring. Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner was also honored. Elias Pettersson was named the third biggest star.

Nathan MacKinnon dominated

The Colorado Avalanche forward is having the season of his life. He’s just one point behind Russia’s Nikita Kucherov for second place in the Canadian scoring race. And he’s having a terrific scoring battle with him. Since before the break, which is due to exhibition games between the stars, including skills competitions, they have been alternating at the top of the scoring after virtually every game played.

For the period under review, he had more than two points per game. In 12 games played, he scored a fantastic 26 points on 12 goals and 14 assists. In addition, he broke the Nordiques/Avalanche club record for the most home games in a row in which he was able to score in a row since the start of the season. He’s at number 25 so far and the streak can still go on.

Historically, this is the second longest streak in NHL history, bettered only by Wayne Gretzky, who did it in 40 consecutive games.

In addition, the Colorado forward is the star of the month for the second month in a row. The last time Edmonton’s Connor McDavid did that was in 2023, specifically in February and March. In addition, he scored 5 game-winning goals and points in all duels in January.

MacKinnon has been in the top five four times and in the final three in Hart Trophy voting three times. However, he has never been the winner of this trophy, which is awarded to the MVP of the season. This is the year he’s finally ripe to be the recipient.

This weekend, he’ll play in the All-Star Game for the fifth time. He leads the team in assists (53) and has posted the second highest number of shots on goal (224). He also has two four-goal performances this season.

The other honoree was Oilers goaltender Skinner

Edmonton Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner was named the second biggest star of the past month. He is a major contributor to the Oilers’ ongoing 16-game winning streak. After the break, they may even tie the NHL’s all-time record set by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1992/93 season on February 7 against the Vegas Golden Knights.

In January, he stood in goal in nine duels, and of course, given the ongoing winning streak, they all ended in victory. He averaged 1.33 goals scored per game and had a save success rate of over 95 percent.

In addition, his personal winning streak is now 12 games in a row! The NHL’s absolute record in this respect is 14 consecutive winning games, with Tiny Thompson being the first to do so in a season that belongs to hockey’s “prehistoric era” (1929/30 season). And Tom Barrasso being the second member of the longest winning streak of all time in the aforementioned 1992/93 season.

The third star of the month was Elias Pettersson

Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson amassed 21 points on 14 goals and 7 assists in 13 games played. Pettersson will also be making his fourth career appearance in the All-Star Game. He was the top scorer last month and tied with MacKinnon for the most game-winning goals.

Pettersson became only the fifth player in Canucks history to score at least 14 goals in a single calendar month, and the first player since Alexander Burrows in 2010 to break an NHL record. He became the first player in history to score a game-winning goal in four consecutive games between January 6 and 11.

Source: NHL