2023-24 Tampa Bay Lightning Player Review: Nikita Kucherov

We finally conclude our player review series with the man that had a season for the ages, Nikita Kucherov. In a season where there was a lot of inconsistency, there was one constant (no, not Penny) – Kucherov racking up points. He claimed his second Art Ross and fell just short of his second Hart Trophy, but dragged the Lightning into the playoffs with his night-in, night-out brilliance.

The Basics

Name: Nikita Kucherov

Position: Forward

Counting Stats: 81 Games, 44 Goals, 100 Assists, 21:40 TOI

Extra Stats (5v5): 53.76 CF%, 51.68 SF%, 51.59 GF%, 52.21 xGF%, 53.04 HDCF%, .885 On-ice Save Percentage, 15.92 iXG

2023-24 Contract: Fifth year of an 8-year contract that had an AAV of $9.5 million

Contract Status: Sixth year of an 8-year contract that is worth $76 million total.

The Charts

The Review

We’ll let Steven Stamkos sum up Nikita Kucherov’s season,

“He’s the reason why we made the playoffs. So, just a heck of a year, a special year.”

There is no way a simple recap of his season will do him or the season he just had for the Bolts. Simply put, it was the greatest season in Tampa Bay Lightning history, and one of the greatest in league history.

We could sit here and list all of the stats we racked up last season, but we’ll pick just one. Kucherov was held off of the score sheet in 13 games last season. That seems like a lot for someone who scored 144 points, right? Well, he offset those pointless nights with 23 games where he recorded 3 or more points.

He went scoreless on back-to-back nights twice, and both of those came within the first month of the season. He was a staple of consistency throughout the season recording double-digit point totals in every month.

Okay, one more stat. He scored against every team he played against last season. We have no idea how often that happens, but it’s always nice when it does. Out of the 31 other teams in the league only the LA Kings and Washington Capitals held him to a single point in their meetings.

We could sit here and list his accomplishments and be done, but instead let’s attack it from a vibes standpoint. Having Kucherov do what he did last year gave Lightning fans, and NHL fans in general, a reason to watch the Lightning on a nightly basis. It gave the press something to write or talk about, especially done the stretch.

In a season where the Lightning occasionally struggled to get out of their own way, Kucherov picked them up and carried them across the regular season finish line. Was he perfect? No. Did he turn the puck over? Yes. That’s the trade off you get with someone who sees the game the way he does. Sometimes what he sees in his head doesn’t play out on the ice, that’s just the way hockey happens.

It’s not always his fault either. There are times he made the correct read, but his teammates either didn’t see it or the other team made a nice play. That being said, there are also times when he’d leave everyone scratching their head. Still, the benefits outweighed the detriments and you don’t want to stifle his creativity or else he’s not Nikita Kucherov.

When your favorite team is struggling, it can sometimes be hard to turn on the game on a nightly basis. Why get yourself involved for 2+ hours when you know they are going to shoot themselves in the foot again? Trust us, finding the will to write a recap when the Bolts blow a second period lead by giving up three goals in a 10-minute span for the fifth time in a month can be utterly demoralizing.

However, knowing that you have a better than average chance to see something you haven’t seen before, or a five-point night, makes you tune in.

It reminds us of the 2011-12 season when Steven Stamkos was chasing 60 goals. The Lightning were on the periphery of the playoff hunt, but finished out well out of the race when they ended up with 84 points in a year where four of the five teams in the old Atlantic Division finished with more than 100 points, leaving little space for the other two divisions. Still, there was a reason to watch the last month of hockey, and that was to see if a young, long-haired Stammer could reach the hallowed mark of 60. He did, in style, on the last night of the season.

Watching the Lightning last year had similar vibes, even when they were comfortably in the playoff picture. No matter how many turnovers we might see at center ice, or at the defensive blue line, or at the offensive blue line, or at the snack bar, there was the chance that, in his 20 minutes of ice time, Kucherov was going to pull off one great play.

Not a lot of fan bases can say that they have that opportunity. Honestly, due to some severely rough patches, Lightning fans can say that they’ve had the ability to see a player with hall-of-fame ability perform on a nightly basis for more than twenty years in a row. First it was Marty St. Louis (and personally for us, Vinny Lecavalier), then it was Stamkos, now it’s Kucherov. Individual greatness doesn’t always lead to Stanley Cups, but it gives us a chance to watch every night, and that was one of Kucherov’s best contributions last season.

His reward, other than an Art Ross, the need for him to do it again this year. For the Lightning to match or exceed their 2023-24 season, Kuch has to put up another MVP-like performance. The offense will flow through him again. If a couple of other players step up, and Jake Guenztel meshes with the offense, the pressure eases a bit, but not a lot.

We know he’ll be prepared for the season as he’s been on the ice working out since at least the end of May when Ryan McDonagh mentioned that Stamkos and Kucherov had just finished practicing when he spoke with them following his trade. We also know that he plays pretty well with a chip on his shoulder. Could the Hart Trophy “snub” propel him into the 150+ point range? Connor McDavid in 2022-23 was the last player to hit those heights, but we wouldn’t put it past Kucherov to make a run at the number, after all there were 13 whole games he didn’t score in last year.

Kucherov had a season for the ages last year. Hopefully, with the disappointment of the way the team’s season ended past us, we can all recognize and appreciate that.

Post script…

Can we talk about the header photo for a moment? Is that not the quintessential Kucherov off-ice photo? His expression perfectly expresses his, “I’m just here because they made me show up.” We all know that he would rather be at home with his family than at some awards show. We also know that the absolutely last thing he wanted to do was be a part of any type of comedy segment.

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