Wyshynski Awards at midseason: Best team, player, goal, feud and more

The 2024-25 NHL season has been a little difficult to get a read on. Some teams that were expected to be very good aren’t very good. Some teams that were expected to be mediocre are anything but. As teams pass the midpoint of the campaign, there’s still time for either of those fortunes to be reserved.

What we do know about this regular season so far: a lot of goals have been scored, and not just by Leon Draisaitl and Alex Ovechkin. Through 649 games, the NHL averaged 6.1 goals per game, making its fourth straight season above the six-goal pace. This scoring spike has added to unpredictability: The NHL reports that 44% of those games had comeback wins, tied for the second-highest rate in history.

So what the season has lacked in clarity of contenders it has made up for with goal horns and scoreboard volatility. Which is nice.

That established, here are 20 NHL awards and superlatives for the midpoint of the season:

This could have been the Capitals, who led the NHL standings after 44 games and weathered their best goal scorer, Kyle Connor, missing 16 games. This could have been the Edmonton Oilers, who have in fact been the best team in the NHL since Oct. 31 and a 10-game Stanley Cup Final hangover to begin the season.

But it’s the Jets for a few reasons. They had the best start in NHL history with 15 wins in their first 16 games. While they couldn’t keep that sprint going, they’ve settled into a solid split, leading the Central Division by a good margin while being in the top three teams offensively and defensively.

Do we wish they were a little better at 5-on-5 and less reliant on the league’s best power play? Sure. But Connor Hellebuyck papers over a lot of deficiencies when he’s this dominant, looking very much like the first back-to-back Vezina Trophy winner since Martin Brodeur (2006-07 and 2007-08).

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There have certainly been other disappointing teams in the NHL this season. But we knew the Chicago Blackhawks would be bad. We knew the Pittsburgh Penguins were a deeply flawed team holding onto a dream that was past its expiration date. If anyone has discerned the organizational plan for the Seattle Kraken in Year 4, please let us know.

But true disappointment is epically failing to meet expectations. Like the Boston Bruins teetering on the playoff bubble after having already fired a coach and two seasons removed from an NHL-record 135-point campaign. Like the New York Rangers, who went from Cup contention to core reconstruction in a matter of months. The Rangers earned an F in ESPN’s midseason report cards. The other team that did that was the Predators.

It’s not just that Nashville has been an utter disaster in the standings — .407 points percentage, even with a slight uptick in quality recently — it’s how bad they’ve been where we all expected they’d be great. They added Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault to a team that was 10th in the NHL in goals per game last season (3.24) and somehow became one of the NHL’s worst offensive teams (2.47). Players like Tommy Novak saw their production fall off a cliff. Nashville is last in the NHL in 5-on-5 goals after 43 games by a margin of 12 (!) tallies.

And yet they’re just one canceled trip to see U2 at Sphere in Las Vegas from rallying for playoff spot, as we saw last season …

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Kirill Kaprizov had this thing locked up before his injury, as he was the Minnesota Wild offense.

In his absence, the Hart Trophy favorite has to be Draisaitl. His current goal pace (31 in 43 games) would rank in the top 10 scoring seasons since 2005. Evolving Hockey has him leading the NHL in expected goals above replacement (25.9) while adding 4.3 wins to the Oilers in the standings. This is while skating with the likes of Vasily Podkolzin, Viktor Arvidsson and Kasperi Kapanen.

Shoutout to Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche, whose torrid December positioned him to potentially become the first back-to-back Hart winner since Alex Ovechkin (2007-09); and Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, whose team either looks like a Cup contender or lottery fodder depending on whether he’s on the ice; and also Hellebuyck, who probably wishes goalies won league MVP at a higher rate than once in the past 21 seasons.

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On the other side of the coin in Edmonton is Skinner. The 32-year-old winger was a heralded value signing for the Oil after getting a buyout in Buffalo. Three years removed from a 35-goal season, fans were salivating at the idea of him potting pucks with Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.

Alas, he hasn’t earned that time with them: Skinner has seven goals and eight assists in 40 games, skating 12:36 per game while having been a healthy scratch on occasion. He’s been a defensive liability, and he’s deep in the negative in goals scored above replacement. Probably not a great sign when your offensive free agent coup has one point more than Corey Perry halfway through the season.

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Greatest on-ice achievement: Alex Ovechkin

The Washington Capitals captain decided not to prolong the inevitable, turning his chase of Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record (894) into a full-on dash to the finish line this season.

Through Wednesday, Ovechkin has 873 career goals thanks to 20 goals in 27 games — an unprecedented scoring clip for a 39-year-old player. Then again, Alex Ovechkin has been doing unprecedented things for Alex Ovechkin, too: His 17 goals in 20 games was by far the hottest goal-scoring start he has had at any age. This is his 20th straight 20-goal season, trailing only Gordie Howe (22 seasons) all time. If he continues his goal-scoring pace, Ovechkin could shatter the record by the end of March, and that’s despite missing time to injury this season.

Our favorite Ovechkin stat, courtesy of Mike Callow of ESPN Radio in D.C.: The Capitals star scored 848 goals in between playoff victories by Washington’s NFL team (from 2006 to 2025). OK, that might speak more to the struggles of Washington football than Ovechkin’s generational scoring prowess, but still impressive.

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Best trend: The rarity of shootouts

Shootouts remain a pox on the NHL, an inferior mechanism for determining the victor from the previous 65 minutes of team effort in which not a single pass is attempted nor is there a defending skater on the ice. But that’s a discussion for another day.

The good news is that shootouts were a rarity in the first half of the season. According to the NHL, 76.5% of games that went beyond regulation were ended in the 3-on-3 overtime, the highest rate of OT goals in NHL history. Let’s keep that energy going!

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Worst trend: Deferred money

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe, Carolina Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis and Anaheim Ducks forward Frank Vatrano signed contract extensions that featured a significant amount of money being deferred until after their playing days are done. That allowed teams to massage their salary cap numbers. All of this is allowed under the CBA and has been done before, as when Arizona re-signed Shane Doan in 2016.

But let’s be real: The NHL generally frowns upon creative accounting that allows teams to wiggle under the salary cap in the name of competitive balance. From someone who watched the draconian response by the NHL to marathon contract extensions with declining salary at the end: Enjoy this while you can, GMs.

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The tragic death of Johnny Gaudreau is still being felt around the hockey world. His memory continues to be honored, like when the USHL Dubuque Fighting Saints — where he played and was a minority owner — recently retired his jersey. But perhaps the greatest tribute to his spirit as a player has been the resiliency of his Columbus teammates.

The Blue Jackets entered the season with a new GM, a new coach and the heaviest of hearts. They finished the first half of the season as a legitimate playoff contender in the Eastern Conference, buoyed by a Norris Trophy-worthy performance by Zach Werenski and a point-per-game season from Gaudreau’s close friend Sean Monahan.

Memories of Johnny Hockey are found around Nationwide Arena, from his picture on the outside of the barn to his stall preserved in the locker room. His teammates continue to process their grief, using some of it to inspire this successful season. As GM Don Waddell told NHL.com, the team had lots of meetings to discuss how to do that.

“We’ve got to take the words that [Gaudreau’s widow] Meredith used at the funeral: ‘Johnny would want you guys to go play hockey. I want you to go play hockey. Go play hockey.’ And we kept echoing those things over and over. ‘This is what the Gaudreaus would want us to do,'” he said.

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Most important rookie: Dustin Wolf

Center Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks and defenseman Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens have moved into their own tier in the Calder Trophy race for the class of 2024-25.

Celebrini’s 0.91 points per game in 34 games would rank him in the top 10 for rookies since 2005, and he market-corrected Matvai Michkov as the charismatic highlight-reel rookie. Hutson is currently leading all rookie scorers in points, is getting better every game and is within range of what Cale Makar (0.88 points per game) and Quinn Hughes (0.78) accomplished in points per game as freshmen.

The Calder is given for the best rookie performance, and I think Celebrini and Hutson are putting on a show. It’s not necessarily given for the most important rookie performance; although if it did, there would be a clear winner: Dustin Wolf of the Calgary Flames.

Wolf was 15-6-2 in his first 23 games, with a .916 save percentage and a 2.50 goals-against average, including two shutouts. (With three assists, no less!) He’s just outside the top 10 in goals saved above expected, via Stathletes. The Flames would be calculating their draft lottery odds right now without him. As is, they’re right in the wild-card mix.

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The last thing you want to see from your franchise player in his second NHL season is the kind of vacant stare that Bedard has when discussing the trajectory of the Blackhawks, which at this point is akin to a malfunctioning bottle rocket. Even in those moments when he should be able to celebrate personal achievement — like reaching 100 career points faster than any other teenaged player in NHL history — his thoughts circle back to how bad the Blackhawks have been.

Chicago stripped the roster down to the foundation so it could acquire a player like Bedard in the draft, and yet the landscape remains barren. Celebrini joined a team with William Eklund, Will Smith and now Yaroslav Askarov in the mix. Bedard doesn’t have nearly that.

Where’s the Evgeni Malkin to his Sidney Crosby? The Nicklas Backstrom to his Ovechkin? The answer is “in future drafts,” which probably isn’t what Bedard wants to hear.

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Goal of the (half) year: Nazem Kadri

The 1992 romantic comedy “The Cutting Edge” — written by “Andor” show runner Tony Gilroy! — asks what would happen if a hockey player became an Olympic figure skater.

Well, this Kadri goal from December is what it might look like if a figure skater became a hockey player: the Calgary Flames center leaping over a sprawled-out J.J. Moser, keeping his balance when hitting the ice, doing a 360-degree turn, dragging the puck back and then somehow beating Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Maybe not the highest technical score from the judges, but Kadri aced the presentation score.

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It’s not often you get two save-of-the-year candidates in the same game, but that was the kind of night Markstrom had against the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 6.

This gloved rejection of a sure-thing Eeli Tolvanen goal was good:

ANOTHER SAVE OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE FROM JACOB MARKSTROM!! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/09yIKJrb9j

— NHL (@NHL) January 7, 2025

This chaotic hand-eye coordination clinic — watch Markstrom stare at the puck before swatting it away — was absolute mastery.

JACOB MARKSTROM FOR A THIRD TIME. 😱

We have no words. pic.twitter.com/RjatOwP4GH

— NHL (@NHL) January 7, 2025

He even had a third save in the game that would have been the best of the night for most goalies. But not for this goalie on this night.

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Coach of the (half) year: Spencer Carbery

In his first 125 games as a head coach, Carbery has a .608 points percentage. He coached the Capitals to an unlikely playoff spot last season, and has had them at or near the top of the NHL this season. While last season was impressive, this season established him as a coaching star. He has kept the ship steady despite not having Ovechkin for 16 games due to injury, gotten the most out of young players and integrated veteran additions to the lineup seamlessly.

Capitals GM Chris Patrick told me recently that Carbery’s open-mindedness as a head coach has impressed him. Take Pierre-Luc Dubois, who is resurrecting his career with the Caps. Other coaches might have been reticent to take on a guy who’s on his third team in three years. Carbery didn’t flinch, recognized the talent and was motivated to get him back on track.

Almost everything Carbery is doing has worked, and it might add up to a Jack Adams Award by season’s end — if not more for Washington.

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Best glow-up: Colorado Avalanche goaltending

The Avalanche began the season with a specious goaltending trio: Alexandar Georgiev, Justus Annunen and Kaapo Kahkonen, the latter of whom they claimed off waivers after the other two were both lit up on opening night. Rather than watch his talented team dragged down by mediocre goaltending, general manager Chris MacFarland got aggressive and nuked the crease.

Annunen was traded to the Nashville Predators for veteran Scott Wedgewood, who had a rough start in his first season with the franchise. Then came the biggest swing: Shipping out Georgiev, in his third year as the team’s primary starter, in a package to the San Jose Sharks for goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.

So far, MacFarland looks like a genius: Blackwood has played so well for the Avalanche (9-2-1, .938 save percentage, 1.89 goals-against average) that they already awarded the 28-year-old with a five-year contract extension worth $5.25 million per season.

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Most shocking move: The Jim Montgomery migration

The Boston Bruins firing Jim Montgomery was something I called before the season, considering he was in the last year of his contract and the team had diminishing returns. That it happened 20 games into the season was a surprise, but what occurred after that was the real stunner.

The St. Louis Blues fired head coach Drew Bannister — last season’s interim coach who was elevated to the big job in the offseason — after 22 games to quickly scoop up Montgomery, who had previously been an assistant coach with the team.

“I was willing to go through the peaks and the valleys with Drew,” Blues GM Doug Armstrong said, “until Monty became available.”

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Most ruthless front office: New York Rangers

For all the obituaries written about the Rangers this season, they remain within spitting distance of the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, among a nine-team pileup of middling contenders.

But it’s clear the team has issues, just as it’s clear that ownership and management will seek to address those issues by any means necessary. Like using the pressure of waivers to force trades for Barclay Goodrow in the summer and captain Jacob Trouba during the season — after trying and failing to trade the latter during the offseason, undercutting his captaincy. Like listing beloved 13-year veteran Chris Kreider‘s name in an email to other general managers about being “open for business” for trades.

Whether or not the Rangers rally for a playoff spot, there are very few players on the roster whose safety is guaranteed from future moves.

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This season hasn’t lacked for locker room drama. Boston Bruins stars Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak recently had to shut down a Boston radio report about a rift between them, with Marchand dumping a dozen photos on Instagram to show how tight they are, which is very “celebrity tabloid scandal” of him.

But that alleged Boston tension was sunshine and unicorns compared with what’s playing out across the continent.

Canucks star forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller have had heat for years, according to former Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau, who told TSN that it predated his time with the team and had something to do with quality of linemates.

This season, it manifested in a brief outburst at practice in which Miller allegedly called Pettersson a baby. Captain Quinn Hughes has acknowledged an issue between the two. Miller and Pettersson denied they’re feuding, with Miller saying, “You guys are just wasting your time. I don’t care.” But all of this has led to a cottage industry of trade speculation, with weekly reports about the Canucks fielding offers for both players to alleviate the tension in the room.

Complicating matters: Miller has a full no-movement clause, while Pettersson doesn’t have trade protection on a contract that runs through 2031-32. Also complicating matters: general manager Patrik Allvin having recently put Pettersson on blast. “He needs to mature and understand that there are certain expectations and it does not get easier. And you need to face the music when things don’t go well,” Allvin told reporters.

It’s going to take more than an Instagram photo dump to squash this.

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For the first time in a long time, Patrik Lane is healthy. Not necessarily on the ice, where a knee injury and an illness have limited him to 15 games this season, but off the ice. Laine went through the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program last summer before being traded to the Montreal Canadiens, prioritizing his health and well-being. In August, he and fiancée Jordan Leigh launched From Us to You, a mental health initiative inspired by the many people who shared their stories with Laine.

When he has played, Laine has been productive: 10 goals in those 15 games, with nine of them coming on the power play. He remains one of the NHL’s most unfiltered star players … although sometimes that can mean giving bulletin board material to opponents, as he did prior to his first game back in Columbus.

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Best in (Utah Hockey) Club: Logan Cooley

The Utah Hockey Club started strong, fell off, dealt with some unfortunate injuries and is now hanging tough in a wild-card race.

There have been some highlights in the former Coyotes’ first season in Salt Lake City, from the unexpected heroics of goalie Karel Vejmelka to the expected dominance of star forward (and Team USA snub) Clayton Keller.

But people aren’t talking enough about Logan Cooley, the 20-year-old dynamo. He has 37 points in 43 games, including 12 goals. He’s second behind Keller in goals and wins above replacement according to Evolving Hockey. Given their roster and resources, it won’t be long until Utah is a force in the West. Cooley’s season is a taste of what’s to come.

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Most likely to continue an NHL record playoff drought: Buffalo Sabres

Unless something dramatic happens in the second half, the Sabres will miss the playoffs for a 14th consecutive season, extending their NHL record. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2010-11. Not to put too fine a point on this, but that was the rookie season for Sergei Bobrovsky, Taylor Hall and Ryan McDonagh.

Through 43 games, Stathletes gave the Sabres a 0.4% chance of making the playoffs despite Buffalo bringing back coach Lindy Ruff and looking like a team that could break out in the East. What a perpetual bummer this is.

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What’s next?

Finally, let’s look ahead three of the biggest storylines for the season’s second half:

1. 4 Nations Face-Off

This first-of-its-kind event replaces the All-Star Game and pits star players from the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland against each other in an exhibition tournament that’s meant to serve as an appetizer for both the 2026 Olympics and future World Cups of Hockey.

The expectation is that an in-season tournament combined with national pride will result in a hugely competitive event with pride on the line. But in talking to players, everything from injuries to the length of the season break — Feb. 9-21 — is on their minds. Do you really want to be the team that wins six of seven games, only to have the season pause for a two-week exhibition tournament? All that said: USA vs. Canada is going to rule.

2. The East wild-card chaos

The top three teams in the Metro Division appear set. Same goes for the top two teams in the Atlantic, and the Tampa Bay Lightning appear in good shape for that third spot ahead of the Boston Bruins. As of Wednesday, that means nine teams within seven points of the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.

They include last season’s playoff qualifiers seeking to find their footing again (Boston, the Rangers and Islanders), teams trying break through (Ottawa, Detroit, Montreal) or recapture previous glory (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia). And then there are the Blue Jackets, a team that might have the rest of the NHL pulling for them if they remain near the bubble, given the circumstances. What a race.

3. The trade deadline

The March 7 deadline might be the biggest boom-or-bust moment in a while. If teams such as the Rangers, Bruins, Predators and Canucks decide to move significant players, it could upend the power balance in the Stanley Cup race.

But even if the fireworks are a little more muted, the top contenders are still going to add what they hope are final championship puzzle pieces. Or it could just be 20 defensive defensemen on expiring contracts getting moved for fifth-round picks. Such is the trade deadline.