TAMPA — Nikita Kucherov in NHL history became the fifth player, and in a season Wednesday second this season, to have 100 assists.
The Tampa Bay Lightning forward reached the milestone when he set up Brayden Point’s power-play goal at 17:05 of the second period in a 6-4 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amalie Arena. A one-timer from the right circle and passed to Point by Kucherov, to give the Lightning a 4-1 lead who scored on a wrist shot from the slot.
“It’s a special moment,” Kucherov said. “Thanks to my teammates and coaching staff for putting me in a position to have success. I’m fortunate to play with great players. It’s a good moment.”
11 times Kucherov was joined by Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux in (1988-89), Bobby Orr in (1970-71), and Connor McDavid in (2023-24) as players to have done it. With an assist for the Edmonton Oilers against the San Jose Sharks McDavid hit the mark Monday.
Gretzky was the last player to do it before that, in the 1991-92 season when he had 122 assists.
In the same season was 1988-89 the only other time two players had 100 assists, 114 had by each Gretzky and Lemieux.
After the game lightningcoach Jon Cooper said Gretzky sent him a text message.
Cooper said, “The first text message I got when I checked after the game.”About Nikita Kucherov the class act of Gretzky is just glowing comments. It was pretty cool.”
On the power play, it was Kucherov’s 40th assist and this season Point’s 15th power-play goal.
“That’s a play that he likes to make,” Point said. “It was just caught by me and hoped it and shot it and it went in. In the period that [Martin] Jones made good saves, he gave me two looks in the slot earlier. To see it go in I was really happy to see.”
In the first period Wednesday Kucherov also scored and with 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists) leads the NHL. The five-time All-Star won the Hart Trophy in 2019 and helped the Lightning win the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021.
Kucherov also set NHL records this season for most assists by a wing and most points by a Russia-born player, in 2018-19 breaking his record of 128 set.
“This year for himself forty-four goals to go along with 100 assists,” Point said. “It’s remarkable. Just watching ‘Kuch’ every day and noticing how he works, it’s a surprising number, but it’s not amazing with how smart he works and how hard.”
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