The Colorado Avalanche are in line for a playoff spot because of their success since acquiring Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood from the Sharks and Predators, respectively. They’ve been two of the biggest stars in the team’s success after a very poor start to the season with Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen. While I always like to sort of brag that we now have elite goaltending, it’s not the only reason that the Avalanche have been so successful lately.
In the NHL, certain statistics are highlighted more than others. We can look at the basic goals and assists stats, but going deeper into it is shooting percentage. Shooting percentage is the percentage of a player’s shots that end up as goals. Those percentages aren’t going to look impressive if you just look at a single team’s numbers, but here’s the top three in the entire league right now:
1. Mark Scheifele, Jets: 23.2 percent
2. Aliakse Protos, Capitals: 22.3 percent
3. Ryan McCleod, Sabres: 22.1 percent
See what I mean? Now, the lowest amount of shots noted in this statistic, per StatMuse, is 77 shots. That’s just something to keep in mind here.
Now, it’s very possible that some of teams’ top three in shooting percentage doesn’t include some of their top three best players. In the case of the Avalanche, you’ll see that exact thing. However, more of that in a brief moment. Let’s get straight into the top three, though.
Colorado Avalanche’s top three players in shooting percentage for the 2024-25 season
3. Valeri Nichushkin
As every fan of the Colorado Avalanche have seen in the past six seasons, Valeri Nichushkin has been a vital part of the team. When he’s on the ice, he stands out from the rest. When he’s not on the ice, it is incredibly noticeable. The team just does not play the same without him. He brings such a physical presence to the team and the team’s record with and without him is incredibly different.
Unfortunately, Nichushkin was suspended for six months dating back to last season’s playoff run and he returned in mid-November of this year. He has 18 goals and 11 assists on the year in just 33 games. He also has a plus-minus rating of nine.
Now, how many shots has he taken in those 33 games? He’s had 87 shots, which is equivalent to 2.63 shots per games played. With all of that information, what percentage of his shots end up in the back of the net? For Nichushkin it is 20.7 percent, good for 16th place in the entire NHL.
2. Joel Kiviranta
What a pleasant surprise Joel Kiviranta has been for the Colorado Avalanche this season!
As a previous role-player in the league, Kiviranta didn’t get all that many chances to play at the top level of hockey, all things considered. With that, his previous career-high in games played was 70, with the Dallas Stars in the 2022-23 season. He just passed that mark on Saturday, playing in his 71st game of the season for the Avs.
One of the biggest reasons he’s played so much this season is because of injuries. The Avalanche have been shorthanded due to injuries for a huge chunk of the year, and Kiviranta has done enough to put a stamp on his roster placement this year and keep it.
Kiviranta has doubled his career-high in goals with 16 on the year. His previous career-high was eight. Kiviranta has 77 shots on the year, meaning that 20.8 percent of his shots have resulted in goals for the Avalanche, which ranks 14th.
Not bad for a young player, huh?
1. Arturri Lehkonen
Arturri Lehkonen is an awesome piece to the Colorado Avalanche’s top line. With the team, he has 70 goals in 184 games. Before his trade from the Canadiens, he had 74 goals in 396 games. That difference is insane.
Lehkonen is also enjoying a career-year. Acquired from the Montreal Canadiens in 2021-22, he’s close to surpassing his season-high in games played with Colorado. In 2018-19, he played in all 82 games for Montreal.
Lehkonen’s shooting percentage overall this year is 21.6 percent. He just barely misses out of cracking the top-5, by .3 of a percent.
Still, that’s very darn good.