Somehow, Lightning’s Kucherov remains NHL’s least appreciated superstar
It feels so simple, yet so difficult to put your finger on what makes Nikita Kucherov such a unique talent. Year after year, his name is always around the top of the NHL’s leaderboard for scoring, but he doesn’t seem to get the same recognition as some of the other most elite players in the world.
Kucherov has secured the fifth 100-point season of his career and has reached this feat for the third season in a row. He currently sits in second amongst the league leaders with 112 points, only trailing Nathan MacKinnon. Those five 100-point seasons rank 18th most all-time and have him fourth amongst active players in the league, only falling behind Connor McDavid (7), Leon Draisaitl (6), and Sidney Crosby (6).
“Is he underappreciated in the grand scheme of things? Uhh, probably…not in our locker room,” Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper told Daily Faceoff. “I was fortunate to be able to be a part of the 4 Nation tournament, and when you’re witnessing and coaching that elite talent — you kind of reminisce a bit and say guys like Kucherov should be in this tournament, and hopefully it happens in the future. But you realize how special a player he is after watching the players I got to be involved with. He would have fit right into that mix. Hopefully, he has an opportunity as well the Vasilevskiys, the Draisaitls, and those guys that didn’t get to play in it. Hopefully, they will soon because those guys deserve to be in events we just witnessed a month and a half ago.
“I think he’s in a category of his own,” Bolts forward Mitchell Chaffee told Daily Faceoff. “Obviously, being in the Tampa market, he doesn’t get seen or looked upon as much as he would if he was in a bigger hockey market. It’s just crazy to watch him day in, and day out, and see what he does year after year. I feel like guys are talking about other players, and he’s slowly getting back up there to leading the league in points again.”
When you think about the term “must-watch TV,” Kucherov’s name has never really been in that conversation when it comes to NHL players, maybe because he’s not on the highlight reels every single night, but maybe, just maybe, he should be for the little things he does that nobody else can.
“Honestly, I didn’t watch him too much,” Chaffee told Daily Faceoff. “Just the style of play and stuff, I was always watching more [Steven Stamkos], [Alex Ovechkin], guys like that. I never really played like Kuch, so, as a younger kid you always try to watch guys that are similar to your playing style. I didn’t really watch him too much, but I always knew he was one of the top players in the league.”
Kucherov’s playing style is a difficult one to describe. He’s not necessarily the fastest, isn’t the strongest, doesn’t have the hardest shot, but the way he can put all of those things together is unlike any other.
“If you look at some of the best guys who have the best hands, the best passers, playmakers, and stuff like that, you look at that list and it’s kind of — he’s on a list of his own. I think he sets himself up where he’s the best at it and it kind of shows season after season,” Chaffee said.
All that said, there is one aspect of the game Kucherov is far and away the best at, something all his teammates can see and feel that it can’t be argued.
“His backhand is insane,” Chaffee said in awe. “He’ll pick a puck up off the wall after it’s rimmed around and he’ll one-touch it twice and backhand sauce across the whole ice, like he does that play after play and it’s consistently so good, and I don’t think anyone else can use their backhand like that.”
It’s no accident that Kucherov has mastered what might seem like a miniscule part of the game, but has such a high impact on it. The way he trains in the summer isn’t relatable to the majority of NHL players.
“He has another approach to the game that not a lot of people have, he’s constantly working on his game and the little things, it shows how smart he is…” Chaffee said. “He goes on the ice every day and it’s an hour or hour and a half on the ice and you’ll spend 20 minutes working on the same little thing. Whether it’s puck touches or the pucks coming around the wall and it’s a rim and you’re just collecting it, we’ll work on that for 20 minutes at a time doing the same drill, that’s just how it is. He engrains that into his game so much that he can do that second nature and you can see that when it comes to game time, he’s one of the best.”
This is only Chaffee’s second year with the organization, but the comfort level with the team’s superstar has improved drastically from year one to year two.
“Ever since I’ve been here, I feel like he’s opened up a ton,” Chaffee said. “I feel like he’s talking to more and more guys about everything.
“He’s approachable, he doesn’t seem like it all the time, but he is,” Chaffee continued with a big laugh.
Over the past three seasons, since 2022-23, only one player has more points on the power play than Kucherov, and that man is Connor McDavid. McDavid has 144 points on the man advantage, but Kucherov has 143. This is the part of Kucherov’s game that has teammates like Chaffee admiring what he can do.
“I think it’s incredible how guys are all draped over Pointer in the bumper and he’ll still find a way to get the puck to him. No matter what, no matter how many guys are there, it may seem like he’s trying to force it at times, but he’s so good at finding that, and all he needs is a foot or two and it’s in the back of the net, so it’s fun to watch.”
It’s crazy to think about how much Kucherov has already accomplished in the NHL and realize that he is just 31 years old. He’s got a lot of elite hockey left in him and could very well be the league’s MVP this season.
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