Nikita Kucherov became the NHL productivity leader. Auston Matthews reigned supreme in scorers

The Canadian scoring this season was dominated for the second time in his career by Nikita Kucherov, who had an impressive points race with Canadian Nathan MacKinnon. However, the Russian hockey player had a better finish and is rightfully happy to win the Art Ross Trophy. It was Auston Matthews who rode his own competition from the very beginning in the scorers’ table and he clearly came to claim his third Maurice Richard trophy.

Nine players broke the 100-point mark, all of them led by Kucherov

Nikita Kucherov of Tampa Bay was the productivity winner for the second time in his career, scoring 144 points. By 16 points, he surpassed his point total from the 2018-19 season, when he won the Art Ross Trophy for the first time. In addition, he became the fifth player in NHL history to record 100 assists in a single season, thus making an indelible mark in the history of the competition.

Kucherov practically spent half the season in a scoring tug-of-war with Nathan MacKinnon, with the two regularly alternating for the lead. The Russian leader of Tampa Bay broke the 100-point mark for the fourth time in his career and is expected to reach the NHL milestones of 900 points and 600 assists next season. Moreover, with his great performance this season, he is one of the aspirants for the Hart Trophy, which is awarded to the most valuable player of the season.

Nathan MacKinnon, the Avalanche’s scoring leader, finished second with 140 points. He improved his point total from last season by a full 29 points! In addition, he broke the 50-goal mark for the first time in his career with two 4-goal performances. Like Kucherov, he is a hot candidate for the Hart Trophy, which he has been nominated for three times in the past but has not won yet.

Connor McDavid did not win his sixth Art Ross Trophy

The third place went to Connor McDavid, who scored 132 points. The five-time productivity winner has had a miserable start to the season and has missed six games, unlike his competitors. Despite that, a few weeks before the end of the regular season, he squeezed into the battle for the productivity lead.

This season, he became the fourth player in history to break the 100 assist mark in a single season and experienced an unprecedented transformation. Last year he was the all-time leading scorer, but this time he scored 32 fewer goals! However, he turned into a passer and together with Kucherov became the second pair in history to collect at least 100 assists in one season. Moreover, at only 27 years old, the player broke the 100-point mark for the seventh time in his career and will go down in history as one of the fastest players in history to break the 1,000-point mark in the regular season.

Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers finished fourth with 120 points. He also had the season of his life. For the first time in his career, he broke the 100-point mark and missed the 50-goal mark for the season by a single goal. David Pastrnak, the Czech Republic’s best player in recent years, is another 10 points back in fifth place. He scored 47 goals this season and added 63 assists, the most of his career. He fell 3 points short of his season high from last year and unfortunately did not surpass the 50-goal mark, as he ran out of breath at the end of the regular season like the entire Boston team.

The sixth best scorer in the league was Auston Matthews with 107 points, followed by Leon Draisaitl, who had one point less. Mikko Rantanen of Colorado finished eighth with 104 points. Ninth place went to J.T. Miller of Vancouver with 103 points and William Nylander of Toronto, who missed the 100-point mark by two points, rounded out the top ten.

Matthews was the top scorer for the third time

American Matthews scored a whopping 69 goals and topped the scoring table by an abysmal 12 goals. For the third time in his career, he won the prestigious Maurice Richard Trophy for the top scorer of the regular season. Alexander Ovechkin, the second best scorer in history, holds the record with 9 wins.

Matthews was practically in a battle with himself all season long, as the possibility of breaking the 70-goal mark in a season, which would have been the first time since the 1992/93 season, seemed very promising. Unfortunately, the milestone didn’t fall, but he still delivered the best performance of this millennium and the 15th best of all time.

Matthews broke the 60-goal mark in a season for the second time in his career. Since joining the NHL, he has surpassed the 30-goal mark in 8 consecutive seasons and 40 goals in 6. Matthews is also a serious contender to win the Hart Trophy.

Second in the scorers table was, somewhat surprisingly, Sam Reinhart of Florida. He had the season of his life with 57 goals scored. And he improved his single-season scoring record by an incredible 24 goals. Another under-anticipated scorer finished third with 54 goals. Edmonton’s Zach Hyman, who benefited from McDavid’s assists and improved his scoring total by 18 goals.

The last one to go over the 50-goal mark is MacKinnon of Colorado with 52 hits, who like Reinhart and Hyman also broke the mark for the first time in his career. Pastrnak finished seventh with 47 goals.

Source: NHL