The NHL season is winding down, which means the best time of the hockey schedule is near with the ups and downs of the Stanley Cup Playoffs arriving this coming weekend.
It’s our last opportunity to have a look back at what unfolded in the 2024-25 NHL season — who surprised us, which teams over or under achieved, which off-season pickups panned out or not — and we’ll have a series of pieces that explore all of that this week.
Below, you’ll find a list of players who surprised us with how they broke out and took a step forward to measurably help their teams in a big way.
For this exercise, we avoid using rookies, who are first arriving and have their own award for the best first season. Rather, our breakouts look at players who have spent some time in the NHL, aren’t first-year players, and took a sharp turn up in their production in a way that has us thinking there is a sustainably great player here.
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Jackson LaCombe, D, Anaheim Ducks
In mid-December, the Ducks made a couple trades involving veteran defencemen. On Dec. 6, they acquired bruiser Jacob Trouba from the Rangers and, eight days later, they traded out Cam Fowler to St. Louis.
Why do this shuffling at the blue line?
One of the more notable reasons was that Trouba is a right shot, Fowler a left, and the Ducks had a few younger defencemen who they wanted to create space for that were blocked by Fowler on the depth chart. The biggest beneficiary of the move was LaCombe, who went from averaging 18:40 of ice time per game in the first two months of the season, to 23:34 after the trade.
After scoring 17 points in 71 games as a rookie last season, it became obvious early in 2024-25 that LaCombe was on his way to a career year, as he already had 14 points through December. But with more ice time came even more production and LaCombe is now just outside of the top 20 scoring blueliners in the NHL with 43 points in 73 games.
At 5-on-5, LaCombe is one of just 10 defencemen to score at least 10 goals this season. In fact, LaCombe trails only Zach Werenski and Cale Makar in individual high danger chances per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play.
LaCombe has one more season left on his $925,000 contract and would be eligible to sign an extension as of July 1.
Jake Sanderson, D, Ottawa Senators
It’s been a huge step up season for Sanderson, whose point total has increased by nearly 20 even though he averages more defensive zone starts than any other Ottawa blueliner.
If the playoffs started today, Ottawa’s 5-on-5 offence would be the worst of every qualifying team, so the success of their power play is crucial to generating goals. This is one place where Sanderson has had a huge impact — he’s one of six NHL defencemen tied for second with five power-play goals on the season and his 28 power-play points rank third, seven behind Makar and one behind Quinn Hughes.
His offensive game has taken such a big step and now complements a defensive game that has always had a presence on Ottawa’s blue line. This season again Sanderson has shone at that end. Among all NHL defencemen with at least 1,000 minutes played, Sanderson is tied for 19th in expected goals against per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play, ahead of the likes of Makar and Josh Morrissey.
Don’t be surprised if Sanderson gets some love on Norris Trophy ballots, which has five finalists. He won’t win the award this season, but the 22-year-old put together a season that has him on the radar for the future now.
Aleksei Protas, LW, Washington Capitals
In the back half of last season, en route to a 29-point campaign, Protas signed an extension with Washington for five years at a $3.375 million AAV. No one batted an eye, and certainly, no one was predicting that in another year, Protas would have one of the most valuable contracts in the NHL.
But that’s exactly what’s happened.
At even strength, Protas averages the second-most ice time per game among all Caps forwards, and leads the team in even strength scoring. In fact, Protas is having such a huge leap in production despite not having a place on Washington’s power play. Protas’ 60 even-strength points are tied for 14th-most across the entire NHL and his number of primary assists at 5-on-5 ranks 11th league-wide.
He’s a huge player at six-foot-six, 247 pounds, but doesn’t play a bruising style. Another power forward on the heavy set Capitals, Protas is just 24 in his breakout season and set to be a bargain for years to come. If there is one potential sustainability flag in Protas’ season, it’s his 21.13 shooting percentage, which is nearly 10 points higher than his career average and well above league average.
Kirill Marchenko, RW, Columbus Blue Jackets
In his second NHL season a year ago, Marchenko enjoyed a little bump in production during his first full NHL season and then began this season with 11 points in nine October games. For those who thought that might have just been a hot start that cooled, Marchenko followed with 12 points in 13 November games, and before you knew it, he was on base for a breakout and an important part of one of the best lines in hockey early in 2024-25.
When Marchenko shared 5-on-5 ice with Sean Monahan and Yegor Chinakov, Columbus controlled nearly 60 per cent of the shot attempts, 62 per cent of the high danger chances, and outscored opponents 9-3. Marchenko went on to spend more 5-on-5 time with Monathan and Dmitri Voronkov and that line outscored opponents 29-12. And when Monahan was out with injury, the Marchenko-Voronkov duo still outscored opponents 21-10.
While Zach Werenski is Columbus’ leading scorer and an award hopeful, Marchenko came out of this season as a star forward in the making, with 31 goals and 72 points in 77 games. His shooting percentage of 15.2 was not egregiously high compared to the rest of his career (it was 11.9 last season). Marchenko ranks 24th in the NHL in even-strength points and tied for eighth in even-strength goals.
