Colorado Avalanche star center iceman Nathan MacKinnon is on a very steep upward trajectory. He won his first Hart Memorial Trophy for his performance during the 2023-24 NHL season, as well as the Ted Lindsay trophy. He led his Colorado Avalanche team to a Stanley Cup victory in 2021-22,
Honestly, the sky is the limit for MacKinnon. While I don’t expect him to have nearly a better season in 2024-25 than he did last year, I don’t think that it is out of the question that he can come close to his totals from this past year. Last season, MacKinnon played in all 82 regular season games, scoring 51 goals and 89 assists for a total of 140 points. Surprisingly, to me at least, there was actually somebody who beat MacKinnon to the point record for the season: Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov (144 points).
First of all, being able to play in all 82 regular season games in the NHL is absolutely something to commend a player for. My thinking is that MacKinnon probably won’t play in all 82 games. He’s only done that four total times during his 11-year career. Is it out of the question? Obviously not, but it isn’t a certainty.
I have complete faith in MacKinnon to have quite a few multi-point games. Something that he’s at a disadvantage with is that Valeri Nichushkin is suspended until sometime in November. It is pretty obvious that the Colorado Avalanche are a much better hockey team with Nichushkin in the lineup. That just won’t happen right away.
I don’t think that a single player should have to carry his team to glory. I don’t think that it will happen despite how incredible MacKinnon is.
That being said, what could his point totals look like?
After all that I said above, you would think that my prediction for MacKinnon in the 2024-25 season would be very poor. For MacKinnon’s standards, it might be. That being said, I do see MacKinnon cracking the 100-point mark this season, but nowhere near the 140 career high that he set last year. Let’s say he scores 48 goals and assists on 75.
That combines for 123 points. He still would have huge competition for the point totals leader next year, with Kucherov and Conner McDavid not going away, but that season would still be extremely impressive and keep him in the eyes of Hall of Fame voters.