The 10 greatest forward seasons of the salary cap era

Credit: Feb 22, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) warms up before a game against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

A new NHL season kicks off this week. 1,312 games of action. A fresh canvas. A blank slate for greatness.

Last season, four of the most productive performances this millennium collided, delivering rare pursuits of 70 goals, 100 assists, and 150 points. A four-horse MVP race came down to the wire, ultimately won by Colorado‘s Nathan MacKinnon.

With these dazzling performances freshly squeezed and a world of possibility ahead, we’ve got greatness on the mind. Incredibly, it’s been 19 years since the NHL and NHLPA brokered a salary cap system, removed the red line, introduced shootouts, and tightened the penalty standard.

Today, we’re celebrating modern artists by identifying the top 10 greatest forward performances of the cap era. The seasons on this list are true masterpieces — an era’s top players operating at their very best.

The Criteria

We aren’t going to anchor to a single stat such as wins above replacement or era adjusted points.
But we do need to keep in mind that the game has changed significantly in the last two decades.
- NHL per-game scoring has fluctuated by a full goal per game — as low as 5.3 goals (2012-13) to 6.3 goals (2022-23). Power play conversion rates are high, goaltender save percentages are down, and offense is cooking relative to a decade ago. So, league-wide scoring each year has to be considered.
The narrative matters — dominance among peers, age, teammates, hardware, MVP voting, etc.
Only one season per player. A list featuring a handful of seasons by many of the same studs on repeat lacks inspiration. Limiting one entry per star also further drives debate on which season makes the cut.

Think of the best signature seasons of the last two decades? Got your favorites? Here we go…

Notes: * led NHL in stat category; Adjusted Pace is a player’s 82-game scoring rate in a neutral scoring environment; MVP Voting Share is a player’s % of the maximum Hart Trophy voting points available

#10. Jaromir Jagr

Why not 2005-06 Art Ross and MVP winner Joe Thornton? Jumbo Joe won the public’s heart — a sublime young talent traded at the peak of his powers that resurrected a Sharks‘ team amidst a 10-game losing skid. But with hindsight, Jagr had the better year. The ageless wonder was 33 — five years removed from his last scoring title. Yet, he rolled into the new, post-lockout NHL, scored 54 goals (to Thornton’s 29), outscored his nearest teammate (Michael Nylander) by 44 points, won the Pearson (now Lindsay) for most outstanding player as voted by his peers, and carried the Rangers to their first playoff birth in nine years. What a player.

#9. Leon Draisaitl

Draisaitl’s spectacular MVP season has a what-if feel to it. With teammate Connor McDavid missing seven games, Draisaitl took that edge and pounced. In March 2020, when the NHL was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, he had a cushy 13-point lead on McDavid. Since the season never resumed, Draisaitl earned his first and only scoring title. The only graffiti on the future Hall of Famer‘s pièce de résistance? The season ended a month early and Draisaitl lived in the cellar of the NHL in defensive impact in those days.

#8. Patrick Kane

Coming from a premier player with a decorated résumé, Kane’s signature season didn’t quite arrive out of nowhere. But at 27 years old and in his ninth NHL season, the three-time Cup winner had not topped 30 goals or 88 points, nor finished top-five in MVP voting. In 2015-16, he exploded. Kane scored 46 goals and won the scoring title by a sizzling 17 points, sweeping the Ross, Hart, and Lindsay Trophies — a transformational season that launched him onto the short list for American-born G.O.A.T.

#7. Nikita Kucherov

While many might expect to see Kucherov’s recent 100-assist clinic as his signature year, the shifty winger dominated the league more thoroughly in 2018-19. Besting McDavid by 12 points for his first scoring title, he would secure 164 of 171 first-place Hart votes and win the Lindsay. World domination. Playing nearly two fewer minutes per night in a less favorable scoring climate, Kucherov was an even more efficient 5-on-5 scorer in 2018-19 than 2023-24. A year ago, three other players were in the MVP mix. Six years ago, Kucherov was peerless.

#6. Auston Matthews

While points are one of the most effective ways to measure value, goal scoring is underappreciated. Despite the NHL’s century-old accounting, goals are not equal to assists. When Matthews scored 60 in 2021-22, it hadn’t been done in a decade. In fact, it had only been done twice in 26 years — Alex Ovechkin (65 in 2007-08) and Steven Stamkos (60 in 2011-12). Remarkably, Matthews, then 24 years old, missed nine games. He was on pace for 67 and could have had a legitimate chance at 70. The new Leafs‘ captain won the Rocket, Hart, Pearson, finished 10th in both Selke and Byng voting, and led Toronto to a franchise-record 115 points.

#5. Sidney Crosby

Picture Crosby in October 2006. He’d just turned 19. A year prior, he’d become the youngest player to score 100+ points. He’d outscored his nearest teammate by 44 points. It wasn’t enough. The laughingstock Penguins finished 29th out of 30 teams. Now, armed with a pair of teammates drafted second overall in Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal, Crosby’s sophomore year shifted the NHL’s competitive landscape. 120 points. The only teenager to win a scoring title in any major sport. League MVP. Pearson. Pittsburgh went from 58-point bottom feeder to 105-point threat. An NHL star was born. With injuries abbreviating his peak years, Crosby’s ascension as a teen arguably remains his greatest full season achievement.

#4. Nathan MacKinnon

Last year’s dazzling performances drove spirited debates about value in rinks, taphouses, and virtual offices. After several near-misses, it was MacKinnon’s 51-goal, 140-point tour de force that emerged as MVP-worthy with a 90% vote share to Kucherov’s 65%. Still absent captain Gabriel Landeskog and with a thinning Avs’ depth chart, MacKinnon averaged an exhausting 22:49 at altitude, weaving in a strong defensive showing to match his perennial all-world offense. His 35-game home point streak was testament to a year of consistent brilliance across the board.

#3. Evgeni Malkin

Like all things Malkin, he rarely gets the respect he deserves. Statistically, he’s a top-20 forward all-time. His 2011-12, a criminally underrated performance in a career full of them, gets the #3 spot. No Crosby, no problem. In a season where the NHL featured just 5.3 goals per contest and with his captain limited to only 22 games, Malkin carried the Penguins on his back. In a neutral era, he scored at a 62-goal, 133-point pace. Lemieux-esque. Outdueling a 60-goal season from Stamkos, Geno went 144-for-149 in first-place MVP votes and a 99% total share.

#2. Alex Ovechkin

To no one’s surprise, Ovechkin’s age-22 frenzy is the best era adjusted goal (72) scoring season of the cap era. In fact, it’s the second-best ever behind Brett Hull (78 in 1990-91). The Great Eight won the goal crown by 13 over Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk. It was one of only two instances in the cap era where a player led the lead in goals and points and earned the impressive four-award sweep — Richard, Ross, Hart, Pearson. Ovechkin led the NHL in even-strength (43), power play (22), and game-winning (11) goals. A combination of power and finesse never seen before or since.

#1. Connor McDavid

McDavid’s 2022-23 rampage was like watching hockey evolution in real-time — a skill set seemingly from the future sent back to the present day to show us what’s physically possible. He became just the sixth player in history to hit 150 points. It’s also the only time anyone has led the NHL in goals (64), assists (89), and therefore points (153) since Lemieux in 1995-96. McDavid famously lost out on an unanimous MVP win when a single writer inexplicably put him fifth on his ballot. With five scoring titles and six turns as a Hart finalist, #97 had other options for his top season. But 2022-23 remains his Sistine Chapel — a career high in goals (by 20!) and points (by 21).

With six months to make history, will anyone crack this exclusive list in 2024-25?

Honorable Mentions

Joe Thornton (2005-06) — Adjusted Pace: 29/93/122; MVP: 1st (82%); Hart & Ross
Pavel Datsyuk (2008-09) — Adjusted Pace: 34/67/107; MVP: 3rd (30%); Selke & Byng
Daniel Sedin (2010-11) — Adjusted Pace: 45/68/113; MVP: 2nd (76%); Ross & Pearson
Steven Stamkos (2011-12) — Adjusted Pace: 68/41/109; MVP: 2nd (40%); Richard Trophy
David Pastrnak (2022-23) — Adjusted Pace: 59/49/108; MVP: 2nd (54%); 61 goals
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