Welcome to Star Power Index: A weekly measure of the players making big splashes around the league. If a player is included on this list, it might not be a good thing – it means he's getting a lot of the hockey world's attention.
These players are in no particular order when it comes to how much buzz they generate. We will review the Star Power Index every week during the regular season.
Cale Makar achieved so much early in his career. The 25-year-old also started this season at an absurd pace.
Makar will compete on Friday and is currently leading the team in points (15), and one of the main reasons for that is that he was an assist machine in the first two weeks. The avalanche Blue-Liner has two goals and five assists in his last four games, including two assists in two of his last three games.
Makar had two assists in Colorado's 3-2 win over Colorado Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. The Avalanche defenseman is currently on a seven-game point streak to start the season. He also scored multiple points in five of those games.
At 14:56 of the second period, Makar was trying to put the puck in the net when his first shot was blocked. However, the puck bounced straight back to Makar and he was able to fire a shot towards the net. Luckily for the avalanche, forward Joel Kiviranta happened to check Kraken's goalie Philipp Grubauerand directed the puck into the net.
Kiviranta's goal gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead at that point and they eventually won the contest 3-2.
Makar continued to thrive on the Avalanche's best power play unit. Just five minutes later, the 25-year-old received another important assist on a goal from the Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon.
In just eight games, Makar has been a force on the power play with one power play goal and six power play assists. In fact, the Avalanche defenseman has recorded a power play assist in five of the team's eight games. His six power play points lead the NHL while he holds the honor Ottawa Senators defender Jake Sanderson as well as Avalanche teammates Mikko Rantanen and MacKinnon.
Makar provides such a dynamic presence at both ends of the ice that he has already registered 12 blocked shots this season. It's still very early in the season, but if Makar can come close to matching this offensive speed, another Vezina Trophy as the league's best defender could well be in the cards.
It's hard to find anyone more locked in than in the entire NHL Tampa Bay Lightning Winger Nikita Kucherov.
Kucherov is at the top of the league leaders' rankings, having collected 13 points (eight goals and five assists) in the early stages. That's not exactly surprising considering Kucherov was on a four-game goal streak entering the 2024-25 calendar.
Kucherov started the year with a seven-point streak and also played four multi-point games during that span. The Lightning forward has also scored in five of Tampa Bay's seven games to start the new season.
In the 2:4 defeat on Thursday against the Minnesota WildKucherov added another goal to his tally at the start of the season.
At 11:31 of the second period, the Lightning were able to keep the puck in the offensive zone and defenseman Nick Perbix passed it to Kucherov near the slot. Kucherov pushed the puck forward Nick Paulwho pushed it back to Kucherov. The veteran shot a brilliant one-timer into the net from the faceoff circle, giving the Lightning a 2-1 lead.
With Thursday's goal, Kucherov moves closer to competing for the second-most points (13) in the league, as he joins players like Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon, New York Rangers forward Artemi PanarinAnd Florida Panthers forward Sam Reinhart.
Kucherov achieved the highest points of his NHL career with 144 points (44 goals and 100 assists) in the 2023/24 season. While it's still early, the Lightning star is on pace for 152 points in the 2024-25 season and could certainly win his second career Hart Trophy as league MVP if he keeps up his sensational performances.
Health was consistently off-putting Mark Stones term of office with the Vegas Golden Knights as he never came close to completing a full season. However, Stone has made a pretty impressive start to the 2024-25 season.
Stone has one goal and five assists in his last four games and currently has the third-most points (12) in the NHL to date. The Golden Knights captain put together a spectacular three-point performance, scoring a goal and two assists in a dominant 6-1 win over the Golden Knights Los Angeles Kings.
Stone scored his second power play goal of the young season at 13:51 of the opening period.
Forward Tomas Hertl was able to retrieve the puck along the boards and eventually pass it back to the defenseman Noah Hanifin near the blue line. In the end, Hanifin fired a shot from the point that Hertl deflected on the way into the net. But before the puck reached the Kings goalie David RittichStone directed the puck toward the goal again in a great display of hand-eye coordination.
While Stone's goal was a stunning tally, he really hit his stride as a presenter earlier this season.
Stone also provided the first assist for two more goals in Las Vegas in Tuesday's win. Ironically, the Golden Knights captain scored the first assist on Hertl's season-opening goal after Hertl helped make Stone's goal possible a short time later. In addition, Stone also supported the striker Ivan Barbashev Goal in the third period that kept the game out of reach with a 6-1 deficit.
If Stone can maintain impeccable health for most of the year, it will truly be a turning point for the Golden Knights. After all, Vegas had to fight hard to secure a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, ending in a tie in the toughest first-round game imaginable Dallas Stars.
Stone makes the Golden Knights' top six even more dangerous, and he's proving that fact by playing at an elite level early in the season.
An NHL goaltender probably couldn't imagine a better way to start a new season Filip Gustavsson managed to put together.
earlier this month. Gustavsson scored a goalkeeper goal against the St Louis Blueswhich is one of the most impressive feats a goalkeeper can accomplish. As great as that was, Gustavsson proved to be something of a wall between the goals for the Minnesota Wild.
In five starts, Gustavsson has compiled a 4-0-1 record, 1.40 goals against average and a .952 save percentage. The Wild goaltender did not allow more than two goals in any of those games and scored just one goal in each of his last three games.
Most recently, Gustavsson saved 24 of the 25 shots he stopped in Tuesday's 5-1 win against the Florida Panthers. The Wild goaltender allowed the Panthers forward to score Sam Bennett at 11:19 of the second period and managed to keep the reigning Stanley Cup champions off the scoreboard for the remainder of the contest.
Gustavsson was the Wild's primary goaltender, starting five of the team's first seven games. The star goaltender is proving to be a hot commodity for a Wild team that has the second-most points (12) in the NHL to start the season.
