Nathan MacKinnon has been at the doorstep of winning a major statistical award the past two seasons, and now he finally has one.
MacKinnon will win the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, given to the NHL’s top goal scorer. He finished his season with 53 goals in 80 games.
Montreal’s Cole Caufield finished his season Wednesday with 51 goals, while Connor McDavid needed five in his final game Thursday to catch MacKinnon. It did not happen, so MacKinnon becomes the second player in Avalanche history to win the award, joining Milan Hejduk in 2002-03.
MacKinnon was in the hunt for the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading point-getter each of the past two seasons. He finished second to Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov both times.
He did sweep the league’s MVP awards, the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award, after the 2023-24 season. MacKinnon is one of the top contenders for those honors again this season, after finishing first in goals and third in points with 127 — the second most of his career.
MacKinnon was the game’s most dominant player at even strength. He finished with 97 even-strength points, the most any player has had since Wayne Gretzky had 103 in 1990-91.
The 30-year-old MacKinnon’s on-ice numbers, both at 5-on-5 and even strength, were among the best of the NHL analytics era, which dates back to 2007-08. The Avs outscored foes 100-42 when MacKinnon was on the ice at 5-on-5 this year.
Seattle’s Vince Dunn was on the ice for 103 goals, the most by any player in this era, and 65 against at 5-on-5 in 2022-23. Calgary’s duo of Johnny Gaudreau (96-38) and Matthew Tkachuk (92-36) in 2021-22 were both slightly better than MacKinnon’s 70.42 GF%.
Colorado outscored teams 126-59 with MacKinnon on the ice at even strength. That is four more goals than the 122 the Avs scored with him on the ice two years ago, which was the previous record.
MacKinnon and the Avs won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regular-season team. They will begin their quest for a second Stanley Cup championship in five years with Game 1 of the playoffs Sunday at Ball Arena.
