The 2018-19 NHL season has been the highest-scoring since 2005-06, when the league came out of the year-long lockout with guns blazing. Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov is on pace for the most prolific season in nearly 25 years, and no fewer than a dozen players have a legitimate chance at 100 points.
Here’s a look at the NHL’s leading scorers on a team-by-team basis:
Anaheim Ducks: Ryan Getzlaf is on track to lead the Ducks in scoring for the sixth time in the past seven seasons. That’s the good news. The bad news? With 39 points, Getzlaf is the lowest-scoring team leader in the league and the Ducks are the lowest-scoring team in the league, averaging barely more than two goals per game.
Arizona Coyotes: Clayton Keller, with 44 points through 68 games, isn’t going to match the 65 points he posted as a rookie last season. He’s one of 10 Coyotes players to hit double-digits in goals, but nobody in Arizona has more than Brad Richardson’s 16 goals – and he scored four of them in the same game last week.
Boston Bruins: Brad Marchand has been the only member of the Bruins’ beastly first line to stay healthy all season, so his 81 points have him comfortably ahead of Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, not to mention on the cusp of the NHL’s top 10 scoring leaders.
Buffalo Sabres: Jack Eichel is leading the Sabres in points for the third consecutive season, and will presumably lead them for many, many more.
Calgary Flames: Johnny Gaudreau is delivering his best season to date, on his way to setting career highs in goals and points. He’s looking good for 100-plus points, and maybe 40 goals, as he mounts a challenge for the Hart Trophy as league MVP.
Carolina Hurricanes: Sebastian Aho broke out for 65 points as a 20-year-old last season, and he’s going to shatter that total as a 21-year-old with a 90-point season within his grasp.
Chicago Blackhawks: Patrick Kane produced the NHL’s longest point streak this season, a 20-gamer in which he went off for 43 points. That helped to make him the league’s leading scorer not named Nikita Kucherov and, with 97 points, he should easily establish a new personal-best in points, surpassing his total of 106 in 2015-16.
Colorado Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon (87 points) and Mikko Rantanen (86 points) were vying for the overall NHL scoring lead earlier this season before Kucherov revved up. The Avs’ top-liners will have to battle for the team scoring lead instead.
Columbus Blue Jackets: The Blue Jackets decided to hold on to pending UFA Artemi Panarin rather than trade him at the deadline, in the hopes he’d spur the franchise to its first extended playoff run. Of course, they’ve got to get into the post-season first.
Dallas Stars: It’s been a bountiful season for many superstar scorers, but the bounty has mostly eluded super Star scorer Tyler Seguin. Still, his near point-per-game pace is enough to lead Dallas.
Detroit Red Wings: Fourth-year center Dylan Larkin is on the verge of setting a career high and has a shot at reaching 80 points. That’s even more impressive when you consider that nobody else on the Wings seems likely to hit 50.
Edmonton Oilers: It’s Connor McDavid, of course, but at least a streaking Leon Draisaitl is within shouting distance.
Florida Panthers: Offensive linchpins Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau are duking it out for top honors, but don’t stare directly at their plus/minus.
Los Angeles Kings: One year after posting a personal-best 92 points, Anze Kopitar will struggle to hit 60 this season. But it’ll still be enough to lead the punchless Kings, the NHL’s second-lowest scoring team after Anaheim.
Minnesota Wild: You may not have heard a whole lot about Zach Parise this season, but he’s quietly leading the Wild in scoring and has a good chance at his most productive campaign during his tenure in Minnesota.
Montreal Canadiens: Max Domi for Alex Galchenyuk? Yep, that deal’s looking pretty good for the Canadiens right about now.
Nashville Predators: It’s Ryan Johansen by a nose over defenseman Roman Josi and trade acquisition Mikael Granlund. Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson would likely be in the running as well, but missed too much time with injuries.
New Jersey Devils: Reigning NHL MVP Taylor Hall hasn’t played since December and the Devils’ offense is all the worse for it. Kyle Palmieri and Nico Hischier were shouldering the load in Hall’s absence, but the Devils haven’t been dangerous without their best player.
New York Islanders: It’s a tougher slog for Mathew Barzal without John Tavares around to attract all the defensive attention, and the Isles sophomore isn’t going to come close to his 85-point rookie campaign. But he’s doing enough to lead the offense, and New York’s scoring-by-committee approach has been productive enough to vault the season’s biggest surprise team into first place in the Metro.
New York Rangers: Mika Zibanejad has been a shining light in a rare rebuild on Broadway, averaging nearly a point per game.
Ottawa Senators: It took a while, but we finally found a team whose leading scorer is a defenseman. In this case, it’s Thomas Chabot, stepping up big-time in just his second pro season. The Sens, of course, traded away the likes of Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel, opening the door for Chabot to assume the team’s scoring mantle.
Philadelphia Flyers: Claude Giroux, fresh off his first 100-point season, isn’t going to hit the century mark this time around, but he might eclipse 90 for just the third time in his 11-year career.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Speaking of 100-point seasons, Sidney Crosby is on track for his first in five years. Not to mention, he’s plus-22 while Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh’s second-leading scorer, is minus-22.
San Jose Sharks: Well, we didn’t have to wait too long to find another defenseman who’s pacing his team in points. Brent Burns, who could probably get cast on Game of Thrones if this whole hockey thing doesn’t work out, has been a force during his time in San Jose. And he’s taken it up another notch this season – beating his personal-best of 76 points is a foregone conclusion, and he’s got a shot at 90 before all is said and done.
St. Louis Blues: Even when the Blues were bad early in the season, Ryan O’Reilly was pretty good. And he’s been even better since they flipped the switch in the new year.
Tampa Bay Lightning: Nikita Kucherov is on pace for 130 points, which would be the most since Mario Lemieux (161) and Jaromir Jagr (149) in 1995-96. Simply astounding, and yet it still feels like he flies under the radar a bit. Maybe that’ll change after he wins the Hart.
Toronto Maple Leafs: It’s not John Tavares and it’s Auston not Matthews. It’s Mitch Marner, who’s set to become the Leafs’ next 11-million-dollar man.
Vancouver Canucks: Elias Pettersson hasn’t just been the league’s best rookie, he’s also been the Canucks’ best scorer. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — get that kid a milkshake.
Vegas Golden Knights: When Mark Stone arrived from Ottawa, he became the Knights’ leading scorer by nearly 20 points. It hasn’t helped that Paul Stastny has missed half the season or that last year’s 43-goal scorer William Karlsson is stuck on 19.
Washington Capitals: Russian machine never break, and Alex Ovechkin is living proof.
Winnipeg Jets: Blake Wheeler keeps getting better with age. He had a career-best 91 points as a 31-year-old last season, and he’s on track for 100 points as a 32-year-old.
