Bolts Best Player of the Season: Nikita Kucherov

It’s been quite the season for the Bolts Best Player of the Month club, watching the title belt pass among the hands of Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Hagel and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Alas, the fans can only vote one to take home Bolts Best Player of the Year. And this season’s winner is none other than the Ted Lindsay Award winner himself.

Nikita Kucherov put on another dazzling regular season leading the NHL in points (121) and assists (84) for a second consecutive year. The All-Star winger had an especially scorching January, tallying 21 points in 16 games, catapulting the Lightning’s season into Stanley Cup contention mode.

The players surrounding Kucherov’s top-level playmaking also had big-time numbers, with Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel all finishing with 80 points or more on the year. As a result, the Bolts finished the 2024-25 season with the most goals in the NHL (292) and the second highest goal differential (76), leading to their eighth straight playoff berth.

Kucherov finished the season as a Hart Trophy finalist and the winner of the Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award, the NHL's most outstanding player as voted by the members of the NHL Players' Association.