WHO WILL SCORE MORE POINTS IN 2024-25? KUCHEROV OR MACKINNON #tampabaylightning #coloradoavalanche
NHL Superstars Nikita Kucherov and Nathan Mackinnon finished 1st and 2nd in the NHL scoring race during the 2023-24 season.
today we look at both players and try to predict who will score more points in 2024-25.
Nikita Igorevich Kucherov (Russian: Никита Игоревич Кучеров; born 17 June 1993) is a Russian professional ice hockey right winger and alternate captain for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). Regarded as one of the best players in the world, Kucherov won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player, Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer, and the Ted Lindsay Award as the best player voted by fellow NHL players, for the 2018–19 season.[1]
Kucherov won the Stanley Cup twice with the Lightning, in 2020 and 2021, leading the playoffs in scoring both times. Kucherov holds the record for most points by a Russian-born player in a single season (144), as well as Lightning franchise playoff records for most points, most goals, and most assists.
Nathan Raymond MacKinnon (born September 1, 1995) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain for the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL). MacKinnon was selected first overall by the Avalanche in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.[1] MacKinnon won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2022, and has also won the Hart Memorial Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award as the league’s most valuable player during the 2023–24 season.[2] He is widely regarded as one of the best ice hockey players of his generation.[3][4][5]
Playing career
Early life
MacKinnon was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and grew up playing in the minor ice hockey system of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.[6][7] As an atom aged player (under 11), MacKinnon recorded 200 points in 50 games.[8] When MacKinnon was 12 and 13, he played Bantam AAA for the Cole Harbour Red Wings, recording seasons of 110 and 145 points, respectively.[8] After these two seasons, MacKinnon enrolled at Shattuck-Saint Mary’s in Faribault, Minnesota.[9] MacKinnon chose to leave his hometown and attend the Minnesota boarding school because of the strength of its ice hockey program.[9] In his first season at Shattuck-Saint Mary’s playing with the Bantam Tier I program, he scored 101 points in 58 games to finish second in team scoring.[10] For the 2010–11 season, MacKinnon joined the under-16 Midget program at the school. Despite being the team’s second-youngest player, MacKinnon was averaging more than two points a game and was second in team scoring at the midway point of the season.[8] During the season, MacKinnon was named to the team that represented Nova Scotia in the ice hockey tournament at the 2011 Canada Winter Games.[11] At the tournament, MacKinnon scored eight goals and eleven points to finish fourth in tournament scoring as Nova Scotia finished in seventh place.[12] MacKinnon finished his second season at Shattuck-Saint Mary’s with 93 points in 40 games played, and was second on the team with 45 goals scored.[13]