Milestone Night In Tampa

Nikita Kucherov has been having a big year for the Lightning this season. As of this writing, he leads the NHL in scoring with 75 points and is second in the league with 47 assists. Why is that so important? Because his 47 assists put him up to 500 for his career. He had three assists last night in the Lighting 7-3 win on home ice over the Minnesota Wild. The 3rd helper, which was an assist on Steven Stamkos powerplay goal,  put him to 500 in his career.

Through 688 career games, all with the Lightning, Kucherov is sitting at 304 goals, 500 assists and 804 points. Those goals are 4th all time in Bolts history, points are 4th, and assists are 4th as well. With that 3rd assist last night put him to 500. He joins Victor Hedman (545), Steven Stamkos (564) and Martin St Louis (588) as the only Lightning players to reach 500 assists for the Lightning.

A milestone such as this is only adding to the aura of Kuckerov here in Tampa. His first couple of years he took to find his footing. Once he did, he's been one of the elite players in the game. There's no doubt in anybody's mind that when he's all said and done Kucherov is going to go down as a top five player in this teams history.

Congratulations to Nikita Kucherov on hitting 500 career assists.