When a player racks up points at a rate that Nikita Kucherov does, the milestones can come fast and furious. So, after a 144-point season in 2023-24, it’s no surprise that the future hall-of-famer is staring at some more benchmarks in the not too distant future. All the better for the Lightning if he does hit them, because a good season for Kucherov should mean a good season for the Lightning.
First up is games played. Kucherov enters the season with 725 career regular season games under his belt, which is good for 6th all-time in franchise history. With 75 games played this year he’ll hit the coveted 800 games played and if he can get to 81 games played, he’ll pass Alex Killorn for fifth in Lightning history. He’s only missed one game over the last two seasons, so it’s a solid bet that he’ll get knock out at least one of those marks.
With 320 goals scored, a 30-goal season puts him at 350, which, considering he’s scored at least 30 goals in seven of his ten seasons, shouldn’t be too big of a problem. He’s currently 22nd among active players in goals scored according to NHL.com, but he should be able to leapfrog a few players on that list such as Logan Couture (323), Evander Kane (326), and Matt Duchene (341). It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him among the top 15 or so by the end of the year.
Marty St. Louis is next on the Lightning’s all-time list at 365 goals, so it would take a career-year for Kucherov to catch and pass him for third place. However, in regards to power play goals, Kucherov (88) could catch St. Louis (96) and move into third place for the franchise behind Stamkos and Vinny Lecavalier, but Brayden Point (89) will be chasing him the entire season.
Kucherov isn’t going to catch Steven Stamkos for the franchise lead in points, but he’s going to close the gap quite a bit. Stamkos sits atop the list with 1137 while Kucherov is fourth with 873. Two points will vault him past Lecavalier for third while he needs 81 to pass St. Louis’ 953 career points with the Bolts. It’ll take a 127 point season for him to get to 1,000 points. That’s not an unreasonable number for him.
Even if he only gets to 950 points this season, it’s a pretty good mark as only 111 players have cracked that mark in league history. Only two players, Stamkos and St. Louis, have done it in a Lightning uniform as well.
The Lightning all-star is playing his age 31 season this year. If he was to put up 127 points and get to the 1,000 point milestone, he’ll have the third best age 31 season in NHL history. The patriarch of the Lightning, Phil Esposito, put up 145 points in the 1973-74 season while Mario Lemuieux had 122 in the 1996-97 season. Ten other players, including Stamkos, have registered 100-point seasons at the age of 31.
In case you were wondering, Kucherov finished with the second best season a 30 year-old put up in NHL history last year. Mario Lemieux had 161 points (in just 70 games) during the 1995-96 season.
Another battle amongst teammates will be for second place in career assists. Victor Hedman (572) is in third place while Kucherov (553) is in fourth. The man they are chasing for second, Stamkos, has 582 while St. Louis is in first place with 588. Chances Heddy and Kuch will be first and second by the end of the season, but will Hedman get to the top first before Kucherov passes him, and can either get to the 600-assist mark for their careers? It’ll be close.
