As the 2022-23 NHL season is upon us, let’s take a look at the projected winner of the Art Ross Trophy and the players who will be in close contention. This trophy is awarded to the league’s leading scorer at the end of the regular season.
Winner: Connor McDavid
Connor McDavid is the most likely player to take home the Art Ross Trophy this season. It would be his third consecutive time winning and fifth in his career. He led the NHL in scoring by eight points last season and plays on an Edmonton Oilers team that is only getting better offensively.
This season McDavid has Evander Kane on his wing the entire season. When those two were together, it benefited both since Kane is a great finisher and able to score a lot of goals while being set up by the captain. McDavid has recorded 100 or more points in five of the last six seasons and even scored at over two points-per-game in the playoffs. The Oilers’ power play is consistently one of the best in the league and he has Leon Draisaitl to feed pucks to on the man advantage. Barring any significant time missed, McDavid should be able to run away with the Art Ross this season.
Nikita Kucherov
Nikita Kucherov has spent 1.5 of the past two seasons injured. He has still been able to play at a very high level when healthy. He is good to go to start the 2022-23 season and appears to be on a line with Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point. Since Anthony Cirelli is injured, the Tampa Bay Lightning will load up the top line in order to help produce a ton of offence.
Since the Lightning usually spreads the wealth over the top two lines, this will benefit each member, including Kucherov. The winger recorded two consecutive 100-point seasons before he dealt with injuries the past couple of years and his seasons were cut short. He is also a former Art Ross Trophy winner when he put up 128 points in 2018-19, the most by anyone since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. Since the Lightning are always dominant and great on the power play, Kucherov has the ability to lead the league in scoring if he stays healthy.
Leon Draisaitl
Draisaitl is also a former winner of the Art Ross Trophy when he led the league in scoring in 2019-20 with 110 points. He has recorded at least 105 points in three of the past four seasons and is a dual threat to put up points. As McDavid has the benefit of playing with Draisaitl, it can also be seen as Draisaitl has the benefit of playing with McDavid.
These two run their own lines, but do play together on occasion when the team needs a goal. They are the two most productive power-play producers in the league and it appears as though Draisaitl has a new energetic linemate in Dylan Holloway to help provide more five-on-five scoring. Draisaitl has taken over games before and also scored at a rate of two points per game in the playoffs last season, except he was on one leg for most of it. When healthy with his scoring and passing ability, he has the potential to lead the NHL in points for a second time.
Related: Stat Hockey’s Edmonton Oilers 2022-23 Line Projections
There were eight players who reached the 100-point mark last season, a few of them have since changed teams and will need to find chemistry with their new linemates, thus making the task of doing so again tougher this season. Those players are Jonathan Huberdeau, Johnny Gaudreau, and Matthew Tkachuk. There should once again be many players recording a lot of points this season as scoring is on the rise. But they may not come that close to the most likely candidates of the Art Ross Trophy in 2022-23.