When the 2024-25 regular season wraps up later tonight, Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov will be named the Art Ross Trophy winner for the second consecutive year. There are only nine players in league history who have won at least three Art Ross trophies, Kucherov will be the tenth.
The Hart Memorial Trophy, which is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, is handed out each season to the player deemed most valuable to their team. Nikita Kucherov has been that and more.
He became the first player in 23 years to post three consecutive 80-plus seasons, joining NHL greats Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey. Since 2015, Kucherov has more points than Alex Ovechkin and more goals than Nathan MacKinnon.
His +30 rating for 5-on-5 plus-minus is tied for fourth-best in the NHL heading into the final stretch of the season, trailing only teammate Jake Guentzel (+32) as well as Columbus forward Kirill Marchenko (+31) and Washington’s Pierre-Luc Dubois (+31). Kucherov’s 1.57 points-per-game ratio leads all NHL players, and his 58 points at 5-on-5 are second-most by any player.
After the loss of former Lightning captain Steven Stamkos ahead of the 2024-25 season, the questions of what the power play would look like for the Lightning were warranted. Kucherov’s role on the power play continued to evolve throughout the season, often playing on both units and factoring into 75.9% of the Lightning’s power-play goals.
In the 2024-25 NHLPA’s player poll 48.25% of the 630 players who voted, overwhelmingly chose Kucherov as the “Best Playmaker” in the league.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid placed second with 20.16%, while Leon Draisaitl, Artemi Panarin, and Sidney Crosby rounded out the Top 5.
With one game left, Kucherov tops the league with 121 points (37 goals and 84 assists).
