How he got here: The legend Johnny Hockey was born through a point-filled junior and college career and continued as he seemingly needed little time to adjust to the NHL while becoming a star in Calgary. Gaudreau has scored goals everywhere he’s been, including 78 goals and 175 points in 119 games at Boston College while winning the Hobey Baker Award in 2014. He went straight to Calgary, where he was a six-time All-Star in nine seasons and scored 609 points in 602 games while finishing fourth in the Hart Trophy voting twice. He then surprised the NHL world by signing a seven-year deal with the Blue Jackets in the summer of 2022.
The 2023-24 season: Gaudreau’s point total was his lowest since 58 in 70 games with Calgary in 2019-20, but the main reason for that was a slow start. Gaudreau scored just two goals and seven points in his first 19 games, but for the rest of the game he was much closer to a point-per-game player, scoring 10 goals and 53 points in his final 62 games. After the season, he acknowledged that his first offseason as a father may have played a role, and one could also point to the team’s declining power play and instability in the team’s lines, playing with three different centers and five different opposite wings for long periods of the season. He was still one of the game’s best distributors, however, and ranked 11th in the NHL in first-team assists per 60 minutes (1.12) among players who have played at least 500 minutes of 5-on-5.
Top moment: Gaudreau scored the overtime winner in one of the most exciting and dramatic games of the season at Nationwide Arena. In front of a packed holiday crowd on Dec. 29, the Blue Jackets and Toronto went neck and neck for 60 minutes, heading into overtime with the game tied 5-5. Gaudreau sealed the deal in overtime by taking Damon Severson’s pass, going around goalie Ilya Samsonov and slotting the puck into the net to send the home fans home happy.
