Fun with on-pace numbers: Will Hughes, Makar do something matched only by Orr and Coffey?

Credit: Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar (USA Today Images)

If you’re into hockey statistics and records, it’s a fun time to be a fan. The NHL scoring rate reached a 29-year high last season, punctuated by Connor McDavid delivering the first 150-point effort in 27 years and Erik Karlsson becoming the first 100-point defenseman in 31 years.

This season, offense has dipped to “only” the second-highest level since the early 1990s. We thus have plenty of other players on pace to accomplish some exciting feats as the 2023-24 reaches its approximate one-third mark.

What are some fascinating statistical chases to watch right now?

Nikita Kucherov, the least appreciated superstar

NHL scoring leader Kucherov is tracking for a career-high 133 points, which would rank behind only McDavid’s 2022-23 total as the highest number this millennium. Kucherov is also on pace to break the NHL record for points by a Russian-born player, which sits at 128, set by…Kucherov in 2018-19. If he maintains his pace and lifts a flawed Tampa Bay Lightning team into the postseason, he could take home his second career Hart Trophy as league MVP. The only other European-born players to win multiple MVPs: Alex Ovechkin, Dominik Hasek and Stan Mikita.

Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar the next D-men to score 100 points?

Karlsson’s claim to the millennium’s greatest offensive season may only hold for a year. Hughes and Makar, the fastest NHL defensemen to 200 assists and points, respectively, are producing epic seasons and look like they’ll fight for the Norris Trophy down to the season’s final day. Hughes is tracking for 110 points. Makar has missed three games but, scoring at a higher per-game rate than Hughes, would finish with 109 in 79 games at his current pace. Both totals would represent the most in one season by any NHL blueliner since Paul Coffey in 1988-89 and the most ever from any defensemen not named Coffey or Bobby Orr.

Auston Matthews’ latest run at 60-plus goals

The one player scoring at a pace north of 60 goals this season: Matthews. No big surprise coming from a two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner who delivered 60 in just 70 games two years ago. While Matthews’ 60-goal effort was the first in a decade at the time, McDavid topped it by burying 64 the next year. What does Matthews have up his sleeve for 2023-24? Through 26 games, he’s tracking for 66. The top total this century belongs to Ovechkin, who buried 65 in 2007-08.

Sidney Crosby, oldest 50-goal scorer ever

When Ovechkin sniped 50 goals in 2021-22, he beat Johnny Bucyk to become the oldest 50-goal scorer in NHL history at 36 years and 215 days old. Ovi’s forever counterpart Crosby is scoring at a 46-goal pace at the moment. He’s 36 years and 128 days old. If Sid gets 50 this season, he’ll hit the number at an older age than Ovechkin was.

The most 50-goal scorers in almost 30 years

Goals, goals, goals! Between Kucherov, Matthews, Kyle Connor (sad face), Brock Boeser, Sam Reinhart, Zach Hyman, and David Pastrnak, we have seven players scoring at a pace of 50 goals or better. Connor is set to miss significant time with a knee injury suffered over the weekend, so he’s out of the running. But even six 50-goal men would be the most we’ve seen in the NHL since 1995-96, when eight players accomplished the feat.

The most 100-point scorers in 31 years

A ridiculous, jaw-dropping 21 players scored at least 100 points in 1992-93. In no other season have we seen more than 16 players hit the century mark. Right now, a whopping 17 players are tracking for 100 or more in 2023-24. That would be the second-most ever.

Connor McDavid: Third fastest to 1,000 points

“Can he score exactly two points a game for the remaining 56 games of this season?” The answer would be no for every hockey player ever to walk the Earth besides Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and McDavid, who tallied almost two points per game over an entire season last year. If No. 97 plays each of the Edmonton Oilers’ remaining games and averages two points, he’ll rack up 112 and finish with exactly 1,000 by season’s end. He’d get there in 649 games, surpassing Mike Bossy (656) for the third-fastest ever behind 99 and 66. Another one for the files of “If anyone can do it, it’s McDavid.”

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