Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon are waging one heck of an Art Ross Trophy race.
The two guys who will soon be Canadian teammates at the Olympics are both sitting on 85 points, with McDavid having played three more games (51) than MacKinnon (48). The latter arrived at his total on the strength of a league-best 38 goals to go with 47 assists. McDavid is on 30 goals and his NHL-high 55 assists on their own represent more points than all but 15 players have posted this season.
That said, the per-game assist leader is Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, who has 49 helpers in 44 games.
Two years ago, both Kucherov and McDavid ended the year with 100 assists. That marked just the second time in league history two players had 100-plus helpers in the same campaign, as Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux both posted 114 in 1988-89.
In that same 2023-24 campaign that Kucherov and McDavid hit the assist century mark, MacKinnon recorded 89 apples and the only player — aside from Kucherov and McDavid, obviously — to top that number this century is Joe Thornton, who put up 96 during his Hart Trophy campaign in 2005-06, and 92 the next season.
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At the moment, McDavid is on pace for 89 assists, Kucherov is tracking 87 (in 78 games), while both MacKinnon and San Jose super sophomore Macklin Celebrini are on pace for 80. If all four guys get to the 80-assist barrier, it will mark the first time a quartet of players have hit that mark since Colorado’s Peter Forsberg and the Pittsburgh trio of Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis and Jaromir Jagr all did it in 1995-96. (Related, how did that Penguins team not win, like, four Cups?)
Meanwhile, on the back end, last season’s Calder Trophy winner, Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens, is on pace for 70 assists. The NHL didn’t have a 70-assist defenceman for 25 years after Brian Leetch recorded 70 in 1995-96, but Roman Josi did it in 2021-22 (73), followed by Erik Karlsson the next year (76) and Quinn Hughes (75) in 2023-24. (Hughes leads all defencemen with 0.89 assists per game this year, but he’s on pace to play only 76 contests.)
With all these sweet feeds going on — and with no Wayne Gretzky Trophy to recognize the guy with the most assists just yet — we figured it prudent to devote this week’s power rankings to a player or two dishing out a healthy number of helpers on all 32 NHL teams.
1. Colorado Avalanche (34-5-9) No blue-liner in the league has more primary assists than the 23 recorded by Cale Makar.
2. Tampa Bay Lighting (31-13-4) Since the start of 2023-24, nobody has more assists in two-and-a-half seasons than Nikita Kucherov’s 233.
3. Carolina Hurricanes (31-15-4) Sebastian Aho is on pace for a career-high 57 assists.
4. Detroit Red Wings (31-16-4) Lucas Raymond, with 39, has 12 more assists than any other Red Wings player. No. 2 on the list is defenceman Moritz Seider, with 27.
5. Montreal Canadiens (28-15-7) Only five players in the league have more assists than Lane Hutson’s 43 and only seven skaters have more than Nick Suzuki’s 40. Then there’s freshman Ivan Demidov, who ranks third in the NHL in terms of assists per 60 minutes (2.09).
6. Vegas Golden Knights (24-12-12) Only the Big Assist 3 of Kucherov, McDavid and MacKinnon have more assists per game since the start of 2024-25 than Jack Eichel’s 0.90.
7. Dallas Stars (28-13-9) Mikko Rantanen leads the Stars with 44 assists and is on pace for a career-best 73.
8. Minnesota Wild (28-14-9) Since the start of his rookie year, in 2019-20, Quinn Hughes’ 0.82 assists per game is the top mark among defencemen.
9. Buffalo Sabres (27-17-5) Blue-liner Rasmus Dahlin is the top tee-up man in Buffalo, dishing out a team-high 29 assists.
10. New York Islanders (27-18-5) Mathew Barzal leads the Isles with 30 assists, but the next three highest totals on the team belong to defencemen (Matthew Schaefer, 21; Ryan Pulock, 19; Tony DeAngelo, 18).
11. Boston Bruins (28-20-2) David Pastrnak has a Boston-best 40 assists, 14 more than Charlie McAvoy’s 26. McAvoy, however, ranks ninth among D-men in assists per game (0.68).
12. Toronto Maple Leafs (24-17-9) Despite missing 13 games, William Nylander still paces the Buds with 31 apples.
13. Edmonton Oilers (25-18-8) Connor McDavid’s 28 power-play helpers lead the league and represent more than half his total number of assists.
14. Pittsburgh Penguins (24-14-11) If Sidney Crosby plays three more years after this one through his age-41 season, it’s conceivable he could finish second all-time in assists behind Wayne Gretzky. Crosby currently sits eighth on the list, with 1,092 and No. 2 on the list — Ron Francis — is 157 ahead of him, at 1,249.
15. Utah Mammoth (26-20-4) Clayton Keller leads the Mammoth with 34 helpers this season and is almost certain to finish as the team leader in assists for the fourth straight campaign.
16. Anaheim Ducks (26-21-3) Two players who are hurt — Troy Terry and Leo Carlsson — lead the Ducks with 29 and 26 assists, respectively.
17. Ottawa Senators (23-19-7) Jake Sanderson is tied for 10th among defencemen with 29 assists and is also knotted with Tim Stutzle for the team lead.
18. Florida Panthers (25-20-3) Brad Marchand leads Florida with 0.56 assists per game, which is why the Cats need him back in the lineup very soon.
19. New Jersey Devils (26-22-2) Since the start of 2022-23, Jesper Bratt has 149 helpers, 39 more than the next highest total on the Devils (Jack Hughes’ 110).
20. San Jose Sharks (25-21-3) Macklin Celebrini leads the NHL in primary assists with 34. What a year this 19-year-old is having.
21. Philadelphia Flyers (23-17-9) Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny are tied for the team lead with 27 assists and have extremely similar stat lines: the former is 19-27-46 and the latter is 17-27-44.
22. Columbus Blue Jackets (22-20-7) Defenceman Zach Werenski has 34 assists, 11 more than any other Blue Jacket.
23. Los Angeles Kings (20-16-13) Adrian Kempe’s 21 assists represent the lowest total to lead an NHL team.
24. Washington Capitals (24-21-6) With 31 assists in 47 outings, team leader John Carlson is on pace to post his fifth career 50-assist campaign from the back end.
25. Nashville Predators (23-22-4) Roman Josi has seven assists in his past five games, though Ryan O’Reilly paces the team with 29 on the season.
26. Seattle Kraken (22-18-9) With three assists on the year, Joey Daccord leads all goalies in that category. Vince Dunn leads the team, with 24 assists.
27. Chicago Blackhawks (20-22-7) Connor Bedard has missed 13 games and is still Chicago’s assist leader (28) by eight.
28. Winnipeg Jets (20-23-6) The Jets leaderboard is quite bunched, with Mark Scheifele on top (36 assists), Kyle Connor one behind at 35 and Josh Morrissey right there, with 32. The 60 helpers Scheifele is on pace for would blow past his previous career high of 50.
29. Calgary Flames (21-24-5) The Flames have bid goodbye to Rasmus Andersson and his 20 assists; how long will team leader Nazem Kadri (25) still be setting up fellow Flames?
30.St. Louis Blues (19-23-8) Robert Thomas has missed eight games, but he’s still the Blues’ leader with 22 helpers.
31. New York Rangers (21-24-6) Since he entered the league, in 2015-16, Artemi Panarin is fourth in assists (605), behind only McDavid, Kucherov and MacKinnon. The only question with Panarin is if he’ll be setting up new teammates before this year’s deadline or if he’ll have to wait until next fall after he inks a UFA deal with a new team in the summer.
32. Vancouver Canucks (17-28-5) Quinn Hughes may be gone, but the Canucks are still led from the back in terms of assists, as D-man Filip Hronek has 25 on the season.
