Nobody should need a reminder about how good Nathan MacKinnon is. The Colorado Avalanche centre leads the NHL in points this year on the heels of a campaign where both the hockey writers (Hart Trophy) and his own peers (Ted Lindsay Award) basically dubbed him the league MVP.
A short time ago, Sportsnet did our top 25 players of the 2000s; MacKinnon landed six, behind only Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDavid, Nick Lidstrom and Martin Brodeur.
But therein lies the rub.
McDavid came into the league two years after MacKinnon — when the latter was still kind of finding his big-league footing — and has basically carried “Chosen One” status since his first NHL shift.
And, of course, MacKinnon hails from small-town Nova Scotia, yet there’s still an NHLer who calls Cole Harbour home and casts a larger shadow than him. Crosby is the most respected player in the game and maintains as big a profile as anybody on skates.
But as a generation of NHL players prepare for the first best-on-best international hockey of their pro careers at the 4 Nations Face-Off, it’s worth wondering if, in 10 days’ time, we could be looking at MacKinnon and saying — right here, right now — that’s the best player on the planet.
MacKinnon entered the break on a high, recording a goal and three assists in a huge Friday night road win over McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers. That gave MacKinnon seven points in two games and 87 on the year, as he stays just ahead of Draisaitl (83 points) and Nikita Kucherov (82) in pursuit of his first career Art Ross Trophy.
Last season, when he won his first Hart after finishing runner-up twice and third on another occasion, MacKinnon came within a single assist of joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Pat LaFontaine as the only players in league history to record 50 goals and 90 helpers in a single campaign.
He’s tracking a 95-assist showing this year and, if he posts that number, he’ll become just the fourth player in the past 30 years to have that many assists in a single season (McDavid and Kucherov both had 100 last season, while Joe Thornton had 96 in 2005-06).
MacKinnon turns 30 in September and just seems to keep finding higher gears. At this time one year from now, he’ll be gunning to become a member of the exclusive Triple Gold Club at the Olympics, having won the 2015 world championship with Canada and the 2022 Stanley Cup with the Avs. He also won the 2013 Memorial Cup with the Halifax Mooseheads, representing the city he played so much hockey in growing up.
Now he’s set to wear Canada’s colours beside McDavid and (hopefully) Crosby, as they take on megastars from the United States, Sweden and Finland. A big showing in that setting, playing with the best against the best, and MacKinnon will tilt that “best player in the world” conversation — even if only for a moment — toward his favour.
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4 Nations Face-Off
With the inaugural edition of the 4 Nations Face-Off fast approaching, be sure to catch up on all the latest news about the highly-anticipated best-on-best event. Puck drops on Feb. 12, 2025, on Sportsnet.
Weekend Takeaways
• One of the few guys to hit the break on as big a high as MacKinnon was his Central Division rival Matt Duchene. The Dallas Stars centre went 2-1-3 on back-to-back nights against the Los Angeles Kings on Friday and the San Jose Sharks 24 hours later. Duchene, who turned 34 in mid-January, has 22 goals on the season now and is just three shy of the 25 he put up during what was considered a strong debut season with the Stars last year. This time out, Duchene has 55 points in as many games for a Dallas club that, once again, is in the title hunt. What a signing Duchene has been in consecutive summers by the Stars (he’s playing on his second one-year deal in Texas right now) after being bought out by a Nashville organization that *checks notes* is only four points ahead of the basement-dwelling Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division.
• It was a huge weekend for the Tampa Bay Lightning, as they try to pull clear of the cluster of teams scrapping it out for an Eastern Conference wild-card spot. The Bolts went on the road and downed the Red Wings in Detroit on Saturday, then helped kicked the Habs out of the playoff chase with a big win in Montreal on Sunday. In fact, Tampa has won four straight games, all of them against Atlantic Division rivals desperate for every point (Detroit, Montreal and two victories over Ottawa). It’s been an up-and-down showing for the Bolts in their first year without Steven Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev, but the fact Tampa owns a plus-44 goal-differential — better than everybody in the NHL save Winnipeg (plus-68) and Washington (plus-56) — tells you the bones of a very good club are still in place.
The Week Ahead
• The wait is over. For the first time since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, we’ve got international best-on-best hockey with the arrival of the first-ever 4 Nations Face-Off. Understanding this will be even better at next year’s Olympics — when the likes of Draisaitl, David Pastrnak and Roman Josi will be competing — it was still absolutely thrilling to see practice lines being posted to social media on Monday morning. The first game of the tournament sees Canada and Sweden battle Wednesday night in Montreal, before Team USA and Finland get after it on Thursday (both games are 8 p.m. ET starts). Saturday in Montreal will be special, with the Swedes and Finns battling at 1 p.m. before the North American rivals take centre stage at 8 p.m. on Saturday night.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Winnipeg Jets (39-14-3): The Jets tied a franchise record with their eighth straight victory on Friday over the New York Islanders. How long can this go? Well, six of Winnipeg’s first seven games out of the break are against teams that don’t currently occupy a playoff spot.
2. Edmonton Oilers (34-17-4): Draisaitl became the first NHL player to hit 40 goals with two tallies in Friday’s loss to Colorado. Draisaitl is basically tracking 60 goals on the nose and if he gets there, the league will have a 60-goal scorer for the fourth consecutive season.
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (33-20-2): This whole season we’ve been talking about whether the Leafs can overtake Florida and win the Atlantic: Maybe they can, but suddenly Tampa Bay is just two points back of the Buds for second in the division.
4. Vancouver Canucks (26-18-11): The Canucks must be feeling as good as they have all year, hitting the break on a three-game winning streak and having dropped just one 60-minute game in their past eight outings. Vancouver — which has been strong on the road all year — will get a big test out of the gate when we’re back with a five-game roadie that starts in Vegas.
5. Ottawa Senators (29-23-4): The Sens have dropped three straight games and are surrendering an average of 39 shots against in those losses.
6. Calgary Flames (26-21-8): The Flames have managed to stick in the playoff race all season, but with their three-game losing skid dovetailing with a three-game winning streak by the Canucks — who hold the final wild-card berth — the Flames will have to right the ship immediately after the 4 Nations hiatus and that won’t be easy as they’ll take on San Jose at home, then hit the road to face some of the best teams in the East in Washington, Tampa, Florida and Carolina.
7. Montreal Canadiens (25-26-5): The Habs got zero points during a weekend when, with two home matinees, they needed four. All eyes now turn to pending-UFAs Jake Evans, Joel Armia, David Savard and Christian Dvorak ahead of the trade deadline.
