Welcome to the NHL Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the players who are controlling substantial buzz around the league. When a player is included on this list it may not be a good thing — it means that they are capturing a large amount of the hockey world’s attention.
These players are in no particular order when it comes to the amount of buzz that they’re creating. We’ll revisit the Star Power Index every week throughout the regular season.
The Chicago Blackhawks may have an NHL-worst 30 points this season, but that hasn’t stopped phenom Connor Bedard from dominating on the ice.
Bedard extended his career-high point streak to eight consecutive games in a 3-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday. The Blackhawks star tallied a goal and an assist as he added an insurance goal in the third period to put the contest out of reach.
In doing so, Bedard became just the fourth teenager in franchise history to have an eight-game point streak as he joined Jonathan Toews (2007-08), Eddie Olczyk (1985-86) and Bobby Hull (1957-58).
Bedard was able to extend his point streak in the opening period of Wednesday’s game when he set up a goal from teammate Ilya Mikheyev.
At the 16:48 mark of the first period, Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard was attempting to clear the puck out of the corner. However, Bedard was able to use his active stick to deflect the pass, and Mikheyev was able to get the puck past the blocker of Avalanche goaltender Trent Miner to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead.
The assist was the 65th of Bedard’s career and tied franchise icon Patrick Kane for the second-most assists by a teenager in team history, behind only Olczyk (80).
With the Blackhawks clinging to a 2-1 advantage in the third period, Bedard found the back of the net thanks to some terrific passing from his teammates. At the 11:54 mark of the final period, defenseman Seth Jones sent the puck up to forward Tyler Bertuzzi in the neutral zone, and Bertuzzi flipped it over to a surging Bedard. The talented 19-year old skated in and ripped a snap shot past Miner to give Chicago a 3-1 lead.
Bedard has registered four goals and seven assists during his eight-game point streak, and has tallied an assist in six of those contests. The Blackhawks young star currently leads the team in points (37) and assists (26) at the midway point of the season.
The Blackhawks are in the midst of a rebuilding effort, but Bedard certainly is making the future look extremely bright. After winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie a year ago, Bedard is on pace for 74 points this season, which would easily surpass his rookie campaign.
Colorado Avalanche star forward Nathan MacKinnon is taking the NHL by storm in terms of the battle for the points lead. However, teammate Mikko Rantanen is also placing himself in the race for one of the NHL’s top awards in the first half of the season.
Rantanen is currently tied for second in goals (25), while ranking third in the league in points (60) behind only MacKinnon (68) and Leon Draisaitl (61). The Avalanche winger has scored a goal in six of his last seven games, including a stretch where he scored in five consecutive contests.
Rantanen recently scored Colorado’s lone goal in a 2-1 shootout loss against the Montreal Canadiens on Jan. 4.
Midway through the opening period, Rantanen was the beneficiary of a terrific pass from MacKinnon. With the Avalanche on the power-play, defenseman Cale Makar tossed the puck over to MacKinnon, who ended up skating into the edge of the face-off circle before distributing a laser of a pass that Rantanen tapped in for the easy goal.
Rantanen’s goal ended up giving Colorado a 1-0 advantage at the time.
The Avalanche star has topped the 40-goal mark in each of the last two seasons. Rantanen is definitely within earshot of Draisaitl for the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league leader in goals considering that he’s on pace for 48 this season.
Rantanen has a knack for putting the puck in the net, and it doesn’t hurt that he plays on a line with one of the NHL’s most gifted playmakers in MacKinnon. With that feather in his cap, Rantanen’s goal-scoring barrages have been very commonplace in recent seasons.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are making a playoff push after missing the postseason in each of the past two seasons. Veteran defenseman Erik Karlsson is doing his best to help push the Penguins across that finish line.
Karlsson currently ranks eighth among NHL defensemen in points (31), while also being in eighth place in assists (27) entering Friday. The Penguins blue-liner has tallied at least a point in four of his last five games and has racked up five assists during that span.
In Thursday’s 5-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers, Karlsson’s offensive prowess led to a late insurance goal for the Penguins.
At the 5:42 mark of the second period, Karlsson received the puck at the blue line and ended up throwing in on net on a shot that went just wide of the cage. However, the puck ricocheted off of the board behind the net and right to forward Michael Bunting. Bunting then found an open Sidney Crosby to the left of the Oilers net and Crosby didn’t miss his opportunity to score an easy goal.
The insurance goal ended up being fairly important as the Oilers scored two goals to cut the deficit to 5-3.
The Penguins made a splash in the 2023 offseason when they acquired Karlsson in a trade with the San Jose Sharks. Karlsson brings an abundance of offensive acumen to the table and has no problem putting the puck on net when the opportunity presents itself. While Karlsson didn’t earn a primary on the play, he helped make it possible.
The Penguins likely aren’t going to get another 25-goal season out of Karlsson, but his ability to score from the blue line is always something that the opposing team has to defend. Karlsson should prove to be one of Pittsburgh’s top assets as it make its charge towards a playoff berth this season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded a 2.90 goals-against-average and a .900 save percentage last season, and those aren’t the kind of numbers that the hockey world has grown accustomed to seeing from the veteran goaltender. However, Vasilevskiy has definitely found his stride guarding the crease this season.
Vasilevskiy currently has a 18-12-1 record to go along with a 2.36 goals-against-average and a .916 save percentage. The Tampa Bay Lightning netminder has allowed two or fewer goals in each of his last five games.
Most recently, Vasilevskiy turned aside 27 of the 28 shots that he faced in a 4-1 win against the Boston Bruins on Thursday. In fact, he stopped 11 shots over the final 20 minutes to keep the Bruins at bay in an important Atlantic Division clash.
Thursday’s victory marked the 311th win of Vasilevskiy’s career and allowed him to pass former Atlanta Thrashers and Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen for the eighth-most among goaltenders born outside of North America in NHL history.
Vasilevskiy has been playing extremely well since the calendar flipped to 2025. After all, the Lightning goaltender has recorded a 2.05 goals-against-average and a .933 save percentage in four starts this month.
Vasilevskiy continues to be a brick wall at times at this stage of his NHL career. According to MoneyPuck, the Russian netminder has tallied a .958 save percentage when facing unblocked shots on the season. If anything close to that type of production keeps up, it’s hard to imagine the Lightning missing out on one of the Atlantic Division’s top three playoff spots.
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