2024-25 Season Spotlight: Nikita Kucherov
The NHL's best passer
Nikita Kucherov (84 assists in 77 games) is no stranger to elite company.
During Tampa Bay’s quasi-dynasty, he became the third player (Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux) to ever hit 30-plus points in consecutive playoff runs. This season, he joined Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey as the only players in NHL history to reach the 80-assist mark in three straight campaigns.
The 31-year-old is cementing his spot alongside the greatest passers of all time. He’s also secured the pole position in another MVP race.
Here’s how.
Transition
When you think of transition experts, precise stretch passes (e.g. Victor Hedman) and deft puck-carrying (e.g. Jack Hughes) come to mind. Kucherov doesn’t specialize in either department. Though he certainly possesses the talent for it, he prioritizes short- and medium-length distribution.
He connects the Lightning’s five-man unit like few forwards in the world, tearing open seam after seam while barely lifting a finger. Your best efforts pale in comparison to his effortless setups.
Watch how his passing enables Tampa Bay to stroll into the OZ (TB 86):
Clean entries catalyze the bulk of your offense in the modern game. Kucherov facilitates those by the boatload, but he doesn’t stop there. His teammates routinely enjoy 10+ feet of breathing room on reception. The bad news for opponents? Disrupting his work is mighty difficult because he influences every phase of the Lightning’s buildup play:
His first touch is butter.
His link-ups off the wall are picture-perfect.
He identifies the optimal target around the OZ blue line.
If you smother it, he can call his own number and break ankles in the process.
When he isn’t flying the DZ, Kucherov is often solving puzzles near the outside hashes:
His internal clock is razor-sharp, as he senses precisely which windows are available to him and how much time he has to guide forecheckers away from the one he prefers. Moreover, you couldn’t ask for a more accommodating passing weight. Each dish is catchable for a player of any skill level. Even Emil Lilleberg.
Of course, we must mention his chemistry with Brayden Point. Kucherov can detect the faintest inkling of daylight, and his patience and accuracy lead the blistering-fast center (97th percentile in top speed) into exits on a nightly basis. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Point in flight = automatic entry.
When someone else assumes first-pass duty and Kucherov can creep further up the DZ, he trades in track meets for slingshot action:
Thanks to his feel for the flow of traffic, he can tell upon reception whether or not he has the runway to gather a head of steam. His leisurely pace means he seldom does. No worries. He smells speed differentials from a mile away and will sacrifice his progress to propel a teammate forward, drawing a sleepy-to-screaming contrast that frequently mystifies NZ defenses.
Should the quick hitters dry up, he’ll let the side switches loose:
There’s no better way to carve up a NZ defense than by shifting the point of attack. The 2011 second-round pick might be the best in the business at this particular skill, using the full scope of his hip pocket’s passing angles to foil the opposition’s strong-side bias.
It might be an activating defenseman or a charging linemate. It doesn’t matter. As long as you offer him a lateral outlet, he’ll find you and thus push his entire line downhill.
In rush (usually 2-on-2) scenarios, Point returns to the fore, as he and Kucherov like to play catch and outrace the opposition to the crease. The former’s wheels (TB 21) turn the defense early, whereas the latter’s serpentine inside-out route grants him the upper hand in tight:
Say you’ve done your homework and insist on clamping up his weak-side and drop-back options. He may not favor carrying the puck in himself, but when all else fails, his shiftiness can punish the slightest false step.
Alex Tuch (BUF 89) discovered that on Sunday:
Kucherov is indeed a NZ beast, but he’s a strange one. He doesn’t move much (below the 50th percentile in average skating distance), rack up carry-ins or take the top off the defense with many deep balls. However, his clinical passing gifts Tampa Bay an endless supply of space and speed differentials. He sets the stage for its whole OZ operation:
No one wants to give superstars time and space, but since his transition passing heightens everyone else’s menace…maybe it’s the safest bet.
Unless you can arrive before his first touch (a tall order for most clubs), he’ll wait for you to close the gap and then spring his teammates over and over again.
OZ Passing
After pulling strings from the shadows on the breakout, Kucherov becomes impossible to overlook in the OZ.
The duality in his game (casual body language vs. split-second decision-making) persists, but it’s now the source of offensive tidal waves. It feels as though 90% of the team’s opportunities originate on his stick. In a nutshell, he’s the straw that stirs the drink.
Thanks to his vision, deception and hands, he keeps even the steadiest defenders off balance. The four other Tampa Bay skaters on the ice are potential beneficiaries at all times:
The most striking element of his playmaking is the emphasis on tempo. For such a sluggish winger, his dimes help the Lightning attack on a dime. Unlike prolific playmakers Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid, who catch and probe for chances, Kucherov stays one step ahead because he’s always pre-scanning for access to Grade A locations.
That well-documented Kucherov-Point bumper connection? It speaks to a broader pattern: He’s the NHL’s reigning one-touch king. A seasoned QB who has the defense beaten before the ball is even snapped.
Not only are his feeds fluid and surgical, but they also deploy his opponents’ velocity against them. The moment you shift your attention to him—and thus away from the slot—Kucherov goes for the jugular, gashing the slimmest corridor between the strong-side forward and D-man.
Moreover, that immaculate weight we witnessed in the NZ surfaces once more in the OZ, as he excels at taking some steam off his teammate’s passes in order to cultivate the best shooting conditions possible:
The brevity of Kucherov’s touches is directly proportional to their potency. Force him to hold on, and you’ve boosted your odds of survival.
You’re not out of the woods, though. He can delay for an additional beat or two and pass teammates open. I’ve slowed the following clips down to highlight his brilliant manipulation of the defense:
With the Lightning recovering possession at the goal line and Ryan Pulock (NYI 6) committing to a check on Jake Guentzel (TB 59), a cross-slot feed to Oliver Bjorkstrand (TB 22) appears viable. Kucherov has sent his share of those over the years and probably could get the puck there. However, he recognizes that Pulock and Simon Holmstrom (NYI 10) have made the same read. He loads his backhand to sell that pass, the Isles defenders scramble to occupy the lane and he finds Point in the guts of the ice instead.
On the second sequence, Buffalo is locked onto Kucherov’s linemates on entry. That won’t do from his floor-general POV, so he stops and starts while opening and closing his stance to show alternative options (shot or pass to the trailer) and invite defensive pressure. Once the Sabres stand their ground, the Russian has relayed his breathing room—and the puck—to his center.
Point is nowhere near free to begin these plays. He ultimately fires a pair of shots from prime real estate.
In the face of Kucherov’s sublime playmaking, teams may collapse and hope for the best. That would certainly dull Tampa Bay’s offense to a degree. Well, at least the prettier parts. A compressed defense = tighter perimeter targets:
The Lightning’s point men suddenly become threats vs. protect-the-house defenses. While Hedman leads the pack as a four-time 15-goal scorer, second-chance opportunities are as important as marksmanship. Point and Guentzel boast the close-range instincts to clean up the trash. When Kucherov is double-shifted, Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul can do the job as well.
Frankly, “the book” on him is so extensive that it provides little actionable guidance. He’s mastered every grip, direction and velocity involved in the art of passing. As the left-shooting right flanker in Tampa Bay’s 1-3-1 PP, he exploits the top of the umbrella, the left flank, the bumper, the goalmouth and the back door. His ability to thread the needle while skating at a snail’s pace—or not skating at all—is unparalleled. Big-brain stuff.
Consequently, he can glide 200 total feet across three periods and end the night with four apples. He’s first in PP assists. He’s fourth in 5-on-5 assists. Factor in TOI, eliminate some noise and he’s #1 in all-situations primary assist rate:
Similarly to in transition, you’re almost better off ignoring him, staying home and covering his targets instead. That might frustrate him for…a shift or two. Then he’ll tap into the other side of his puck skills. The one that’s produced 35-plus goals on five separate occasions.
Whichever poison you opt for, it’s not going down easy.
Kucherov spoke about his pass-first nature back in his 2018-19 MVP season:
“I like to find the open guys and give him a pass that he would be comfortable with, shoot it and score it. It just gives me more joy to just give the great pass and land it perfectly on his stick or in his wheelhouse so he can just score a goal.”
That remains true six years later. In fact, his peers just voted him as the league’s top playmaker. Opponents clearly know about his game. What they still don’t know is how to stop it.