Welcome to the NHL Star Energy Index: A weekly gauge of the gamers who’re controlling substantial buzz across the league. When a participant is included on this record it might not be a great factor — it signifies that they’re capturing a considerable amount of the hockey world’s consideration.

These gamers are in no specific order in terms of the quantity of buzz that they are creating. We’ll revisit the Star Energy Index each week all through the common season.

Cale Makar has already completed a lot early in his profession. The 25-year-old has began this season at an absurd price, too.

Coming into Friday, Makar presently leads the NHL in factors (15), and one of many greatest causes for that’s that he has been an help machine over the primary two weeks. The Avalanche blue-liner has registered two targets and 5 assists over his final 4 video games, together with racking up two assists apiece in two of his final three contests.

Makar tallied two assists in Colorado’s 3-2 win in opposition to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. The Avalanche defenseman is presently on a seven-game level streak to start the season. He has additionally recorded a number of factors in 5 of these video games.

On the 14:56 mark of the second interval, Makar was trying to put the puck on web when his preliminary shot was blocked. Nevertheless, the puck ricocheted proper again to Makar, and he was in a position to fireplace a shot in the direction of the web. Fortuitously for the Avalanche, ahead Joel Kiviranta occurred to be screening Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer, and redirected the puck into the again of the web.

Kiviranta’s objective ended up giving the Avalanche a 2-1 lead on the time, they usually in the end gained the competition 3-2.

Makar additionally continued to thrive on the Avalanche’s high power-play unit. Simply 5 minutes later, the 25-year previous earned one other major help on a objective by Avalanche ahead Nathan MacKinnon.

In simply eight video games, Makar has been a pressure on the power-play with a power-play objective and 6 power-play assists. In actual fact, the Avalanche defenseman has tallied a power-play help in 5 of the workforce’s eight video games. His six power-play factors lead the NHL as he holds the honour over Ottawa Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson in addition to Avalanche teammates Mikko Rantanen and MacKinnon.

Makar offers such a dynamic presence at each ends of the ice as he already has registered 12 blocked pictures on the season. Whereas it is extraordinarily early within the season, if Makar can sustain anyplace near this sort of an offensive tempo, one other Vezina Trophy because the league’s high defenseman actually may very well be within the playing cards.

It is arduous to search out anybody throughout the NHL that’s extra locked in than Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov. 

Kucherov finds himself close to the highest of the record in terms of factors leaders as he has racked up 13 factors (eight targets and 5 assists) within the early going. That is not precisely shocking contemplating that Kucherov registered a four-game objective streak to start the 2024-25 calendar.

Kucherov has begun the 12 months on a seven-game level streak, whereas additionally tallying 4 multi-point video games throughout that span. The Lightning ahead has additionally scored a objective in 5 of Tampa Bay’s seven video games to start the brand new marketing campaign.

In Thursday’s 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild, Kucherov added one other objective to his early season whole. 

On the 11:31 mark of the second interval, the Lightning have been in a position to hold the puck within the offensive zone and defenseman Nick Perbix received it over to Kucherov close to the slot. Kucherov slid the puck over to ahead Nick Paul, who slid it again to Kucherov. The veteran proceeded to get a scorching one-timer into the web from the face-off circle to provide the Lightning a 2-1 benefit.

With Thursday’s objective, Kucherov strikes right into a tie for the second-most factors (13) within the league as he is knotted with the likes of Avalanche ahead Nathan MacKinnon, New York Rangers ahead Artemi Panarin, and Florida Panthers ahead Sam Reinhart.

Kucherov compiled the most important level whole of his NHL profession in the course of the 2023-24 marketing campaign as he put collectively 144 factors (44 targets & 100 assists). Whereas it is early, the Lightning standout is on tempo for 152 factors in 2024-25, and will actually win his second-career Hart Trophy as league MVP if he retains up along with his sensational performances.

Well being has been a deterrent all through Mark Stone’s tenure with the Vegas Golden Knights as he is by no means logged near a full season. Nevertheless, Stone is off to fairly a formidable begin out of the gate in 2024-25.

Stone has tallied a objective and 5 assists in his final 4 video games, and presently has the third-most factors (12) throughout the NHL to date. The Golden Knights captain is coming off of a spectacular three-point efficiency through which he racked up a objective and a pair of assists in a dominant 6-1 win in opposition to the Los Angeles Kings.

Stone recorded his second power-play objective of the younger season on the 13:51 mark of the opening interval.

Foward Tomas Hertl was in a position to dig the puck out from alongside the boards, and in the end received it again to defenseman Noah Hanifin close to the blue line. Hanifin ended up letting a shot go from the purpose that Hertl deflected on its strategy to the web. Nevertheless, earlier than the puck received to Kings goaltender David Rittich, Stone redirected the puck as soon as once more for the objective in an amazing show of hand-eye coordination.

Whereas Stone’s objective was eye-popping tally, he is actually thrived as a facilitator early on this season. 

Stone additionally recorded the first help on two different Vegas targets all through Tuesday’s win. Sarcastically sufficient, the Golden Knights captain tallied the first help on Hertl’s objective to open the season after Hertl helped make Stone’s objective potential a short while later. As well as, Stone additionally assisted on ahead Ivan Barbashev’s third-period objective that continued to place the sport out of attain at a 6-1 deficit.

If Stone is ready to have a clear invoice of well being all through the vast majority of the 12 months, it is actually a game-changer for the Golden Knights. In spite of everything, Vegas needed to battle and claw to clinch a spot within the Stanley Cup Playoffs final season, and ended up drawing the hardest first-round matchup possible within the Dallas Stars.

Stone makes the Golden Knights’ high six very extra harmful, and he is showcasing that truth as he is taking part in at an elite stage to start the season.

An NHL goaltender in all probability could not dream of a greater begin to a brand new season than what Filip Gustavsson has managed to place collectively.

Earlier this month. Gustavsson scored a goalie objective in opposition to the St. Louis Blues, which is without doubt one of the most spectacular feats {that a} goaltender can obtain. As large as that was, Gustavsson has proved to be a brick wall of kinds in between the pipes for the Minnesota Wild.

In 5 begins, Gustavsson has compiled a 4-0-1 document, a 1.40 goals-against-average, and a .952 save proportion. The Wild netminder hasn’t allowed greater than two targets in any of these outings, and in addition has yielded only one objective apiece in every of his final three contests.

Most not too long ago, Gustavsson turned apart 24 of the 25 pictures that he confronted in a 5-1 win in opposition to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. The Wild goaltender allowed a objective to Panthers ahead Sam Bennett on the 11:19 mark of the second interval, and was in a position to hold the defending Stanley Cup champions off of the scoreboard for the rest of the competition.

Gustavsson has been the Wild’s major goaltender as he is began 5 of the workforce’s first seven video games. The star goaltender is proving to be the recent hand for a Wild workforce that’s tied for the second-most factors (12) within the NHL to start out off the season.