Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov reigns atop the NHL once again.
Kucherov on Thursday sealed his second consecutive Art Ross Trophy, given annually to the player who leads the NHL in regular season scoring. He put his finishing touches on an NHL-best season with Thursday's regular season finale against the New York Rangers and ends 2024-25 with 121 points in 78 games.
Kucherov won the scoring title by five points, outproducing Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon’s 116-point campaign. Kucherov is the repeat scoring champion after pacing the NHL with 144 points in 2023-24.
Kucherov became the 10th player in NHL history to lead the league in scoring three times (2019, 2024, 2025). In the last 25 years, only three players have repeated as the NHL’s scoring champion. Kucherov joins Jaromir Jagr and Connor McDavid on that short list, and his teammates have talked all season about how central he is to their success.
“He’s just been consistent throughout his life, working really hard,” Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy said of Kucherov earlier this season. “He almost didn’t take any days off during the offseason. He basically started skating right away, like probably a week after the season last summer. So just that dedication to work hard, work honest, it's what makes him the best in the world.”
Kucherov has found success all season. His 84 assists co-led the NHL, and he became only the 14th player in NHL history to record three 120-point seasons.
Kucherov should garner consideration for his second career Hart Memorial Trophy (2019) as the NHL player deemed most valuable to their team. Jagr is the only player in the last 25 seasons to win back-to-back Art Ross Trophies and not win a Hart Trophy in either of those seasons.
Kucherov’s passing has continued to keep highlight producers busy in 2024-25, and his 37 goals tied him for 13th in the NHL.
Forward Jake Guentzel is in his first season with the Lightning and spent many parts of this season playing on the opposite wing from Kucherov on Tampa Bay’s top line. Guentzel has complimented Kucherov’s abilities on multiple occasions this season.
"You see it from afar, but to see it up close, how skilled he is and the plays he makes,” Guentzel said, “you catch yourself in awe every day.”
Opposing penalty kills have struggled to slow the player who garnered a league-high 48.25% of votes as the NHL’s greatest playmaker in the annual NHL Players Association (NHLPA) players’ poll. His 46 power-play points this season led the NHL, and his nine game-winning goals were tied for fourth most.
From the season opener in October to game 82 on Thursday, the NHL’s best passer impressed. Just ask Lightning assistant coach Jeff Halpern, who manages the team’s power-play attack that is so often orchestrated by Kucherov.
"The thing that sets him apart—not just from players in the league now but from kind of the history of the league—is how good of a passer he is,” Halpern said. “It's one thing to kind of sit there in those spots and make passes. It's another to break down whole teams and make reads away from not just the guy in front of you, but everywhere else. And he's able to make those reads and understand how to open up penalty kills.”
As the regular season wound down, Kucherov continued his offensive showmanship—his 46 points in 30 games since Feb. 1 paced the NHL.
He had four goals and nine points in the team’s final six regular season games and is six points shy of becoming the 27th right wing in NHL history and second player in team history to reach 1,000 NHL points.
Teammate Anthony Cirelli said the NHL’s leading scorer continues to amaze him with his playmaking, even in their eighth season as teammates. If you ask Cirelli, Kucherov is as good as it gets.
“It's unbelievable. The guys in here know how good Kuch is, how much hard work and time he puts into his craft and what makes him so good,” Cirelli said.
“It's a pretty special guy to just be around in the locker room and be able to practice with and try to learn some tips from. Year in, year out, he's been our best player and the best player in the league.”
