Why Lightning's Nikita Kucherov deserved the Hart Trophy this season

Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov won his second Hart Trophy this week by just 10 voting points. A first-place vote here and a few second-place votes there, and he might not have edged Edmonton's Connor McDavid, whose name appeared on more ballots (see ballots here).

As a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, I've voted for Kucherov for each of the past three seasons, and going into the announcement I believed he had picked up enough support to finally win his second career Hart.

And while I truly believe Kucherov deserved to win all three years, this was the year he deserved it most.

I watch Kucherov every day. I see how hard he works in practice, how meticulous he is with his routine. I hear his teammates gush about him. I see him get frustrated when things don't go well. I see the way he brings out the best in his teammates. How he anticipates the next move before the puck is on his stick like no other.

And this season, I saw Nikita Kucherov put together the best all-around regular season of his Hall of Fame-worthy career.

Kucherov's biggest strength is that he seems to give the Lightning what they need most at the right time. When they've needed him to shoot more, he has. When he's needed to adjust on the power play, he's been there. And this season, his defensive game largely went unnoticed.

This wasn't Kucherov's 100-assist, 144-point season of two years ago, though he did match his career-high 44 goals from that season. He combined that with a career-best plus-43 and some underlying metrics that show this was his best defensive season.

Back from the brink

Everyone will remember the 50-game stretch from Nov. 15-March 21 in which Kucherov amassed 104 points (33 goals, 71 assists), most over any 50-game, regular-season stretch since Mario Lemieux during his 69-goal, 161-point Hart Trophy-winning season in 1995-1996.

But it was at the beginning of that stretch that Kucherov saved the Lightning's season.

It's no secret that the team often goes as he does, so when the Lightning had their worst-ever seven-game start, it was Kucherov who lifted them out of the rut.

Kucherov struggled to open the season, starting minus-8 in his first four games. He sat out the next two due to illness, but when he returned he started to break the Lightning out of their slump.

In his first game back, Kucherov had two assists in a 3-2 home loss to the Blackhawks, a defeat that put the Lightning at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with a 1-4-2 record. But that began a stretch of 29 points (nine goals, 20 assists) in 19 games. He had three game-winning goals and was a plus-15 over that span, as the Lightning went 15-4-0 from Oct. 23-Nov. 29.

By the end of it, they led the Atlantic Division by four points. The stretch started with Kucherov recording 38 shot attempts over his first three games, his most over any three games this season. He was taking it upon himself to pull the Lightning out of the conference cellar, and he did.

As important as Kucherov's points were to the turnaround - especially given the injuries that plagued the team throughout the season - it was his buy-in to playing a stronger defensive game that really flipped the season.

Commitment to defense

Plus/minus has its flaws, so first take into consideration that Kucherov's defensive point shares this season (3.2) were the best of his career, even better than his first Hart Trophy season (2.3), when the Lightning won the Presidents' Trophy in 2018-19.

Now, point shares are linked to a team's success, which can explain why Kucherov had better defensive point shares than McDavid (2.8) but worse than third-place finisher Nathan MacKinnon (3.9) of Colorado.

Anyone who has watched enough of Kucherov this season, however, would see how engaged he was away from the puck. He was relentless on the forecheck, more responsible in the defensive end, and he limited his turnovers (numbers that are going to be higher because he has the puck on his stick so much).

But Corsi numbers, which look at shot attempts for and against to evaluate a team's and player's all-around play through puck possession, might be more trusted stats.

When Kucherov was on the ice during 5-on-5 play, the Lightning allowed just 12.9 shot attempts per game. That's markedly less than McDavid (15.2) and MacKinnon (15.4) in those same situations. Those numbers stand out even more when you think about how much possession time great offensive players like Kucherov, McDavid and MacKinnon have when they're on the ice.

Given the injuries, Kucherov played with a number of linemates over the course of the season. That included double-shifting numerous times when the Lightning were playing with an 11-forward, seven-defenseman lineup (or were down to 11 forwards due to an in-game injury). And when you look at the team's 20-1-1 run from Dec. 20-Feb. 25 - which coincided with Kucherov's 50-game, 104-point stretch - he spent much of that time playing alongside defensive-minded Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel to form the Lightning's top all-around line when the team was playing its best hockey.

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This story was originally published June 13, 2026 at 12:33 PM.