New King In Tampa Bay

In the now thirty five year history of the Tampa Bay Lightning, there have been a lot of great skaters and scorers that have come through the organization. Guys like Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Victor Hedman, Brad Richards, Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, the list goes on and on. When this season started, the name at the top of that list for scorers was Steven Stamkos, who sat at 1,137 career points. That is no more.

On the Lightning last road trip, Nikita Kucherov picked up four points, bringing his career total to 1,138 (and counting). Making him the Lightnings all time leading scorer. November 25th, 2013, in a home game against the New York Rangers, Nikita Kucherov scored his first NHL point, a goal in a 5-0 win. His first NHL assist (a pair of them actually) came a month later in a road game against the Panthers in Sunrise.

Since that time, Kucherov has gone on to record (at the time of this writing) 405 goals, 733 assists for 1,138 points in 890 games. In his thirteen years in the league, Kucherov has six 100-point seasons, four years of 40 or more goals and five years of 80 or more assists.

The numbers speak for themselves, he is that much of a superstar. Sure he takes some grief for not really talking much in the media, and if I'm being totally honest that's more than fine. His game really needs to do all of the talking for him. He's managed to keep his nose clean, so far as I can tell, away from the rink. His play on the ice is solid all around. Kucherov is no doubt one of the top five players on the planet at the moment and he's showing it off every night (or almost every night). Oh, and he's only 33 years old. He's still got plenty left in the tank.

Congratulations to Kucherov on becoming the Lightning all time leading scorer!