The Ted Lindsay Trophy now has its final three. And it is a serious list.
Macklin Celebrini, Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid are in the mix for the prize handed to the league’s best player as voted by the NHL Players’ Association.
It is a heavyweight trio, blending a generation-defining phenom, the slickest offensive producer around and the standard-bearer for the sport worldwide.
Celebrini is already sitting at the top table
At just 19, Macklin Celebrini is still blowing up every metric in sight.
The San Jose Sharks center finished the season with 115 points, including 45 goals and 70 assists in 82 games. More importantly, he set a franchise record with that haul in a team that has gone from ordinary to dangerous in the space of a year.
San Jose jumped from 20 wins and 52 points to 39 wins and 86 points. Celebrini was the engine behind it all. The most striking part might be his consistency. He recorded at least one point in 60 games, had 18 three-point outings and five more with four points or better. If he wins, he will become the first Sharks player ever to take home the trophy.
Kucherov keeps doing Kucherov things
Nikita Kucherov, meanwhile, rolls on with the calm authority of a player who makes dominance look routine.
The Lightning winger finished with 130 points in just 76 games. That works out at 1.71 points per game, the best mark in the league.
With 44 goals and 86 assists, he once again carried Tampa Bay on offense. He also posted 40 games with more than a point, nine four-point nights and two five-point bursts.
His stretch between 20 December and 12 January summed up the season nicely: 25 points in 10 games. Absurd stuff.
Already a Ted Lindsay winner last season, Kucherov could go back-to-back. It would be another reminder of just how far above the pack he still sits.
McDavid remains the benchmark
Then there is Connor McDavid. As almost every year, his name is right there at the very top, or close enough to feel inevitable. Once again this season, the Oilers captain led the NHL in scoring with 138 points, built on 48 goals and 90 assists.
He picked up at least one point in 68 of 82 games, with 43 multi-point outings and several huge nights, including three five-point performances. From 4 December to 13 January, he stacked up 20 straight games with a point for a total of 46 during that run. Already a four-time Ted Lindsay winner, McDavid can join Wayne Gretzky if he lands a fifth. That alone tells you the scale of the moment.
Three players, three very strong cases
Celebrini is the breakout star and the future is already here.
Kucherov is the league’s slickest, most reliable offensive weapon.
McDavid is still that mix of production, influence and control that somehow never stops feeling normal because he does it so often.
What makes this final three so compelling is that none of them really looks like the others. Yet each one has a huge case to win.
A race that should go right to the wire
The Ted Lindsay always carries a different edge, because the players vote for it themselves.
That matters. It is about respect on the ice, the kind of impact opponents feel shift by shift, and the mark a player leaves over the course of a season.
Between McDavid’s eye-watering numbers, Kucherov’s consistency and Celebrini’s explosive rise, this one should be tight.
One thing is certain: with these three names, the NHL is once again celebrating the best attacking talent it has to offer.
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