This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Nikita Kucherov
Tampa Bay Lightning Right Wing
121 points and 84 assists at 31, a second consecutive Art Ross Trophy, and nine game-winning goals.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | TBL | 52 | 9 | 9 | 18 | +3 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 102 | 8.8 | 13:07 |
| 2014-15 | TBL | 82 | 29 | 36 | 65 | +38 | 37 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 191 | 15.2 | 14:57 |
| 2015-16 | TBL | 77 | 30 | 36 | 66 | +9 | 30 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 209 | 14.3 | 18:13 |
| 2016-17 | TBL | 74 | 40 | 45 | 85 | +13 | 38 | 17 | 0 | 7 | 246 | 16.3 | 19:26 |
| 2017-18 | TBL | 80 | 39 | 61 | 100 | +15 | 42 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 279 | 14.0 | 19:49 |
| 2018-19 | TBL | 82 | 41 | 87 | 128 | +24 | 62 | 15 | 0 | 8 | 246 | 16.7 | 19:58 |
| 2019-20 | TBL | 68 | 33 | 52 | 85 | +26 | 38 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 210 | 15.7 | 18:52 |
| 2021-22 | TBL | 47 | 25 | 44 | 69 | +1 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 156 | 16.0 | 19:59 |
| 2022-23 | TBL | 82 | 30 | 83 | 113 | -2 | 36 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 271 | 11.1 | 20:08 |
| 2023-24 | TBL | 81 | 44 | 100 | 144 | +8 | 22 | 13 | 0 | 6 | 306 | 14.4 | 21:40 |
| 2024-25 | TBL | 78 | 37 | 84 | 121 | +22 | 45 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 265 | 14.0 | 21:11 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 803 | 357 | 637 | 994 | +157 | 386 | 96 | 0 | 57 | 2481 | 14.4 | 18:60 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
37 goals and 84 assists in 78 games — 121 points, the most in the league, and a second consecutive Art Ross Trophy — at 21:11 a night, plus-22, with 8 power-play goals and 9 game-winning goals on 265 shots.
53.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 79th percentile. His ice went 44-41 against an expectation of 57.48-50.89 — thirteen goals of scoring missing and ten fewer conceded, which on a club that scored 283 goals says most of his production came a man up and on the rush.
The Finesse Game
The passing is the best in hockey and it is not close. He throws pucks into space a half-second before a teammate arrives, he holds it until a defenceman is committed and then puts it behind him, and 84 assists is the second time in three seasons he has cleared eighty.
265 attempts at a median of 30 feet with 27 per cent from inside 20, converting at 14.0 per cent. The shot is genuinely good and it is the fourth thing about him; he is a passer who scores 37 goals because defences cannot commit to stopping the pass.
The Physical Game
6-0 and 173 pounds and among the lightest forwards in the league. He does not forecheck, he does not win a puck on the wall, and none of the value has ever been in that half of the game.
45 penalty minutes in 78 games is a moderate rate and a good share of it is the stick foul or the slash of a man who has lost possession. He complains, he is theatrical about contact, and he draws penalties as a result.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick in 2011 — 58th overall — and 803 games, 994 points, two Stanley Cups, a Hart Trophy and three Art Ross Trophies.
He is 32 and has had 100 or more points in four of the last five seasons. Whatever the club’s structural numbers say, it employs the most productive player in hockey.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,233 minutes
- Expected goals
- 53%
- 79th pct
- Shot attempts
- 51.7%
- 71st pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 44 for, 41 against. Expected: 57.5 and 50.9.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 17 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 83 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1233 minutes at five-on-five
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- TBL took 50.8% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.0% — 2.2 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 1,233 minutes at five-on-five — 88th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brayden Point | 50.5% | 58.1% | 48.1% |
| Jake Guentzel | 51.5% | 55.6% | 50.8% |
| Victor Hedman | 52.9% | 53.2% | 50.2% |
50.5% together, 58.1% for him apart and 48.1% for Point apart. He was better away from Point, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Point.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
369 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 37 of them goals. His median goal came from 21 feet. 27% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 23% from beyond forty.