#NHLStats provides the Top 10 notes from an October which featured two of the four 2024 NHL Global Series presented by Fastenal games this season, the League’s first full-time female assistant coach debuting behind the Kraken bench, Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural contest as well as the launch of NHL Unites and premiere of League content on Prime Video including Prime Monday Night Hockey, NHL Coast to Coast and FACEOFF: Inside the NHL. Comparative stats are through 166 games.
1. Teams played to 96% capacity crowds, tied for the second-highest mark in an October over the last 24 years behind 2016-17 (97%). Scoring is at its highest rate in nearly 30 years, with the 6.5 goals per game standing as the highest at this stage since 1995-96 (also 6.5 G/GP) and 822 even-strength goals marking the most since 1989-90 (837). Over two-thirds of all contests have been decided by a one-goal margin or two-plus including at least one empty-netter (69.9%; 116 of 166 GP), while nearly half have featured the winning team overcome a deficit (40.4%; 67 of 166 GP). That includes four three-goal comeback victories – achieved by the reigning-champion Panthers (Oct. 26) as well as three teams who did not qualify for the 2024 playoffs in the Flames (Oct. 9), Blues (Oct. 10) and Sharks (Oct. 28), with San Jose staging its rally in the final five minutes of regulation.
2. National broadcasts had many memorable moments including during the opening night in North America when Jessica Campbell of the Kraken made her historic coaching debut, Aleksander Barkov and the Panthers raised their Stanley Cup banner followed by Dylan Guenther generating the first goal in Utah Hockey Club history. Other highlights were Macklin Celebrini scoring his first career goal on the premiere of NHL Coast to Coast and the return of NHL Frozen Frenzy, where all 16 games featured a different start time (a League-first after two contests coincided during the event last year).
3. Star players continued to shine, with Cale Makar (4-15—19 in 11 GP) joining Bobby Orr (15 GP in 1973-74) as the second defenseman in NHL history with an 11-game season-opening point streak, Kyle Connor (9-8—17 in 10 GP) setting a franchise record for the first-place Jets as well as Nathan MacKinnon (5-13—18 in 11 GP), Artemi Panarin (6-9—15 in 8 GP) and reigning Art Ross Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov (8-6—14 in 8 GP) also logging lengthy runs after recording at least 120 points last year. Mark Stone (5-14—19 in 11 GP) shares the League lead in scoring with Makar, while Nico Hischier (10-5—15 in 13 GP) and Cole Caufield (10-1—11 in 11 GP) pace the NHL with 10 goals. Makar, Connor, MacKinnon, Panarin, Kucherov, Stone, Hischier and Caufield are eight of the League’s 65 players possessing a double-digit point total.
4. Nikita Kucherov kickstarted his run by netting a natural hat trick on Oct. 11 and was one of three players to tally three goals in a season-opening game (also Mikko Rantanen on Oct. 9 & Anze Kopitar on Oct. 10). Kucherov, Rantanen, Kopitar, Artemi Panarin (Oct. 17), Brandon Hagel (Oct. 22), Sean Couturier (Oct. 26), John Tavares (Oct. 28) and Brandon Montour (Oct. 29) account for the League’s eight hat tricks – the “NHL Hat Trick Challenge” returned for the 2024-25 regular season, with AstraZeneca donating $3,000 to the Hockey Fights Cancer Fund of the V Foundation for every hat trick scored throughout the campaign up to $300,000.
5. Players continued to compete for the remaining roster spots with Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. Mark Stone (5-14—19 in 11 GP) has the most points this season among Canadians who were not among the country’s initial six players, while the most among Finnish, Swedish and American hopefuls belong to Mikael Granlund (5-8—13 in 12 GP), Jesper Bratt (2-11—13 in 13 GP) and Kyle Connor (9-8—17 in 10 GP), respectively.
6. Teams from around the League remembered the life of Johnny Gaudreau andhis brother Matthew, including the two clubs for which Johnny played. In Columbus, the Blue Jackets and Panthers let 13 seconds expire on Oct. 15 and Sean Monahan passed the puck to another one of Johnny’s longtime teammates Sam Bennett, who placed it in the hosts’ vacant left wing position. Monahan then scored a goal against Florida and pointed to Johnny’s banner that was raised to the Nationwide Arena rafters during a pre-game ceremony. In Calgary, the Flames held a moment of applause and celebrated Johnny’s most-memorable highlights with the team on Oct. 12.
7. Macklin Celebrini (7:01 on Oct. 10), who collected the second-fastest goal from the start of a League debut by a No. 1 pick behind Mario Lemieux (2:59 on Oct. 11, 1984), was one of 19 players to score his first career NHL tally. That group of young players included fellow teenagers Calum Ritchie (Oct. 14), Matvei Michkov (Oct. 15) and Will Smith (Oct. 31), as well as Arshdeep Bains (Oct. 26) who buried the winner for his hometown team with Mantar Bhandal and Harpreet Pandher on the Hockey Night In Canada: Punjabi Edition call. Michkov (4-5—9 in 11 GP) shares the League lead in rookie scoring with Logan Stankoven (1-8—9 in 9 GP).
8. Minnesota (5-0-2 from Oct. 10-24) mustered the NHL’s second longest season-opening point streak behind Winnipeg (8-0-0 from Oct. 9-26), which included opening the scoring in each contest and going 391:31 in regulation before facing its first deficit. The Wild’s opening month was highlighted by Kirill Kaprizov collecting six straight multi-point games, Marc-Andre Fleury foiling his former team during what was likely his final contest in Pittsburgh as well as Filip Gustavsson scoring the first “goalie goal” in franchise history on Oct. 15. The new Goal Simulation feature on NHL.com captured the historic moment at Enterprise Center.
9. Gustavsson got the third “goalie goal” captured by NHL EDGE data (since 2021-22), which clocked the puck with a max speed of 52.05 mph while also covering 124.5 feet while airborne and having a max height of 13.7 feet. The record for fastest shot ever tracked by NHL EDGE fell twice over a three-day span, with Tage Thompson’s 104.69 mph blast at 4:01 of the first period on Oct. 26 besting the mark set by Michael Kesselring (103.77 mph on Oct. 24). Skaters have logged a combined 15,117.54 miles this season, with Jack Hughes (47.28 miles) topping the list.
10. Several veterans reached noteworthy milestones, including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin hitting 1,600 career points and 500 goals, respectively, one day after Alex Ovechkin became the sixth member of the NHL’s 700-goal and 700-assist club. Crosby and Malkin face Ovechkin (5-5—10 in 9 GP) – who is on pace for a 45-goal season which would move him past Wayne Gretzky (894) for the League record – for the first time this season on Nov. 8 (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+, Hulu, SN, TVAS) before the Penguins are pitted against David Pastrnak and the Bruins to open the 2024 NHL Thanksgiving Showdown doubleheader on Nov. 29 (6:30 p.m. ET on TNT, Max, SNP, SNO, SNE, TVAS).
