Best Players of This NHL Season

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The 2020/2021 season in the National Hockey League (NHL) is about to end. Sports fans are just to see whether the Tampa Bay Lightning can beat the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals and become the best team in the NHL for the second year in a row. It’s a good time to take a look at the season stats and check which players performed best.

Top Scorers

Only one hockey player in the entire league has managed to break the mark of 100 assists for the 2020/2021 season. That’s Edmonton Oilers center forward Connor McDavid. He scored 105 points on goals and passes with 33 goals and 72 assists.

With McDavid in the lineup, Edmonton finished fifth in the Eastern Conference in the regular season and lost to the Winnipeg Jets with a 0-4 score in the first round of the playoffs.

Neither Connor can improve his record, nor other competitors can reach the same result as his in the Art Ross Trophy race. The award is already on its way to its hero.

The top 5 most prolific players in the NHL for the 2020/2021 season also included:

  • McDavid’s teammate Leon Draisaitl (84);
  • Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand (69);
  • Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner (67);
  • Toronto forward Auston Matthews (66).

Matthews is the only hockey player in the top five who has scored more than assisted. With 41 goals, Auston won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer of the season. 

What’s more, the Stanley Cup finalists were not even among the top 30 most prolific players of the season. Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point (ranked 32nd) was closest to the top 30 with 48 points on the goal-and-pass system.

Efficiency

The NHL’s Most Valuable Player is the hockey sportsman with the best team performance in the league. This time, it is Finnish forward Mickey Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche. With Mikko on the ice, Colorado’s goal difference was 30. His teammate Devon Toews was just one goal behind Rantanen. The Canadian brought the Avalanche a positive difference of 29 pucks with his presence.

Thanks to Rantanen and Toews, Colorado won the Western Conference regular-season championship. In the first round of the playoffs, the Avalanche were confident winners over St. Louis (4-0), but stumbled over Vegas (4-2) in the second round and ended their fight for the Stanley Cup.   

The top five best players of the NHL season also included:

  • Joel Edmundson of Montreal (29);
  • Leon Draisaitl of Edmonton (29);
  • MacKenzie Weegar of Florida (29).

Toews outperformed the competition with the team’s best goals-against-average ratio per game.

Dry Scoring

Serhiy Varlamov from the New York Islanders had the most wins with dry scores. The Ukrainian had seven dry meetings on his account, as well as Colorado goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer. However, the German goalie was behind Varlamov by extra points. 

Serhiy’s reliable and solid play allowed the Islanders to finish sixth in the East Division, win against Pittsburgh (4-2) in the first round of the playoffs, advance past Boston (4-2) in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals, and fight severely against Tampa Bay but lose in a step from the season’s main series (3-4).

The top five also included:

  • Canadian Marc-Andre Fleury from Vegas (6); 
  • Russia’s Andrei Vasilevskiy from Tampa Bay (5);
  • Connor Hellebuyck from Winnipeg (4).

Grubauer, Fleury, and Vasilevskiy are all vying for the NHL Vezina Trophy, the NHL’s best goaltender of the season award. The winner will be announced after the Stanley Cup Final.

Time on Field

The leader in ice time during the 2020/2021 season was Drew Doughty from Los Angeles, Canada. The defenseman played 1,478 minutes, and his team finished only 12th in the Western Conference, failing to make the playoffs.

Doughty’s main pursuers were:

  • Thomas Chabot from Ottawa (1,287);
  • Brent Burns from San Jose (1,463);
  • Darnell Nurse from Edmonton (1,434);
  • Seth Jones from Columbus (1,412).

The player with the highest average ice time per game can appear in this list.

Best Players from Russia

Artemiy Panarin from the Rangers was the highest-scoring NHL player among other Russian participants. He scored 17 goals and provided 41 assists for 58 assists.

Panarin’s successful play helped New York finish eighth in the Eastern Conference, which was not enough to make it to the playoffs though.

Kirill Kaprizov from Minnesota became the second most prolific Russian in the NHL. He had 51 points on goals and passes (27+24). The Wild finished sixth in the West. Kaprizov’s team lost to Vegas (3-4) in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals in the first round of the playoffs.

Pavel Buchnevich from the Rangers was the last in the top three players, having 20 goals and 28 assists on his account.

The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

Philadelphia Flyers player Oskar Lindblom was awarded for his dedication to hockey,  winning over Matt Dumba from the Minnesota Wild and Patrick Marleau from the San Jose Sharks according to the voting results.

Calder Trophy

Here are hockey players who fight for the title of the best rookie in the season:

  • Kirill Kaprizov from the Minnesota Wild;
  • Jason Robertson from the Dallas Stars;
  • Alex Nedeljkovic from the Carolina Hurricanes.

Frank J. Selke Trophy

Alexandr Barkov from the Florida Panthers was named the best defensive forward of the 2020/2021 NHL season. Patrice Bergeron from the Boston Bruins and Mark Stone from the Vegas Golden Knights also appeared in the top 3.

Jack Adams Award 

Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’amour was named the NHL’s best coach. Minnesota Wild and Florida Panthers managers Dick Evanson and Joel Quenneville joined him in the top three.

Conclusion

You are welcome to follow the Stanley Cup Finals and the new NHL season at Scores 24. The hockey section provides detailed stats of all games, which is very useful for NHL fans and sports betting enthusiasts. 

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