Colorado Avalanche star forward Nathan MacKinnon is on his way to yet another incredible season. He is on pace for 57 goals and 82 assists through the 2025-26 season. In 2023-24, he accumulated 51 goals and 89 assists on his way to his very first Hart trophy win.
Through 61 games played (he missed one game post-Olympic break), MacKinnon has 43 goals and 61 assists. On a horrible power play unit, he has nine goals and 24 assists.
Per the NHL, MacKinnon is slated to win the Hart trophy this season, and do it in a landslide.
The funniest thing about this is that Connor McDavid, who faces the Avalanche Tuesday night, has 35 goals and 73 assists for 108 points, while MacKinnon has 104. Still, McDavid sitting at seven percent in terms of votes right now speaks volumes as to who is the better player. Even Nikita Kucherov and Macklin Celebrini are ahead of McDavid. Celebrini has 19 less points than McDavid.
The one thing that MacKinnon can do to further solidify his placement in the voting process is getting the power play to score on a consistent basis. The Avalanche are 31st in the league at power play percentage with 15.8% conversion rate. Overall, they’ve converted on 32 of 203 power plays this season.
I strongly believe that the Avs won’t last long in the postseason unless they come through on the power play and be a lot more consistent. Teams play harder in the postseason, so special teams play becomes more important. MacKinnon will need to show that he can lead the power play unit to success.
One thing I love about MacKinnon’s play is that he just skates through people while taking control of the puck. It’s like he doesn’t care that there are opponents ahead of him. He is always determined to skate through them with the puck on his way to scoring opportunities. That’s one of the coolest things about watching him play.
There is plenty of talent across the NHL, but the Avalanche have one of, if not the best players in the whole world. He’ll be in the conversation for the Hart trophy for many years to come—hopefully for the rest of his career.