Stanley Cup finals - leading scorers (1950-2023)

[Hockey Outsider]

This thread has been updated for 2021. Nikita Kucherov led the Stanley Cup finals for the 2nd year in a row.

A few impressive facts about Kucherov (which I posted on the main board):

• Kucherov led the playoffs in scoring by 9 points. The only players to have ever led the postseason in scoring by an equal/larger margin are Wayne Gretzky (10 points in 1985, 9 points in 1988) and Mario Lemieux (10 points in 1991).
• Kucherov is one of only 5 players in NHL history to have two 30+ point playoff runs (Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Kurri, Kucherov). He's one of only three players (along with Gretzky and Lemieux) to do that consecutively.
• He's one of only two players in NHL history (the other being Peter Forsberg) to lead the playoffs in scoring after missing the entire regular season.
• Kucherov is one of 16 players going back to 1950 to have led the Stanley Cup finals in scoring twice. Everyone else is already in the Hall of Fame.
• Going back to 1950, Kucherov is one of only six players (along with Bernie Geoffrion - 3x in a row, Gordie Howe, Guy LaFleur, Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky) to lead the Stanley Cup finals in scoring twice in a row.

Also - lots of respect to Kucherov, who immediately and enthusiastically went over to congratulate Vasilevskiy on the Smythe.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

ROR and Briere tore shit up

 

[Batis]

This thread has been updated for 2021. Nikita Kucherov led the Stanley Cup finals for the 2nd year in a row.

A few impressive facts about Kucherov (which I posted on the main board):

• Kucherov led the playoffs in scoring by 9 points. The only players to have ever led the postseason in scoring by an equal/larger margin are Wayne Gretzky (10 points in 1985, 9 points in 1988) and Mario Lemieux (10 points in 1991).
• Kucherov is one of only 5 players in NHL history to have two 30+ point playoff runs (Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Kurri, Kucherov). He's one of only three players (along with Gretzky and Lemieux) to do that consecutively.
• He's one of only two players in NHL history (the other being Peter Forsberg) to lead the playoffs in scoring after missing the entire regular season.
• Kucherov is one of 16 players going back to 1950 to have led the Stanley Cup finals in scoring twice. Everyone else is already in the Hall of Fame.
• Going back to 1950, Kucherov is one of only six players (along with Bernie Geoffrion - 3x in a row, Gordie Howe, Guy LaFleur, Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky) to lead the Stanley Cup finals in scoring twice in a row.

Also - lots of respect to Kucherov, who immediately and enthusiastically went over to congratulate Vasilevskiy on the Smythe.

Thank you for this post which really shows how historically great Kucherov has been in these two Cup runs. It is perhaps also worth noting that if we look at the accumulative Conn Smythe voting points from these two playoffs Kucherov actually comes out on top.

Kucherov: 85 points (25 points in 2020 and 60 points in 2021)
Vasilevskiy: 83 points (1 point in 2020 and 82 points in 2021)
Point: 82 points (66 points in 2020 and 16 points in 2021)
Hedman: 70 points (70 points in 2020)

So even if Kucherov did not win any Conn Smythe trophy I do think that a case can be made for him having been the most impactful player over these two playoffs.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

This thread has been updated for 2022. Mikko Rantanen quietly led the Stanley Cup finals in scoring (with zero goals and eight assists). Conn Smythe winner Cale Makar was one point back.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I'm not going to update all the tables, but Mark Stone was the leading scorer of this year's Stanley Cup finals.

Trivia - he's the first player since Peter Forsberg (1996) to get a hat trick in a SCF game. And, as far as I can tell, he's the first player in more than a century to get a hat trick in the decisive SCF game. (The last player to do that appears to have been Babe Dye in 1922).

 

[MadLuke]

That an interesting trivia, with Gretzky 6 finals, Mario 2, Bossy (5?), Esposito, you would think one time an hat trick in a winning effort would have happened, I imagine overall scoring tend to go down as playoff goes ?

 

[Hockey Outsider]

That an interesting trivia, with Gretzky 6 finals, Mario 2, Bossy (5?), Esposito, you would think one time an hat trick in a winning effort would have happened, I imagine overall scoring tend to go down as playoff goes ?

It's kind of surprising, but it's also due to the narrow definition of a hat trick. Toe Blake "only" had one goal in the decisive game of the 1944 SC Finals - but it was the OT winner, and he added four assists (three of which came in the last ten minutes of the 3rd period to force OT). Five points, four of which were at a crucial time - but it's not a hat trick. Mark Stone scored to make it 5-1, and then adds an EN goal to make it 8-3 - that's a hat trick.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

in my memory tanguay and rupp had game seven of the finals hat tricks

but in reality each guy only had three pts, not goals

 

[Voight]

I'm not going to update all the tables, but Mark Stone was the leading scorer of this year's Stanley Cup finals.

Trivia - he's the first player since Peter Forsberg (1996) to get a hat trick in a SCF game. And, as far as I can tell, he's the first player in more than a century to get a hat trick in the decisive SCF game. (The last player to do that appears to have been Babe Dye in 1922).

Honestly for a second there I thought Stone might get the Smythe. Marchessault was fantastic & a great pick, but given the voting happens in the clinching game I thought some guys would've changed their ballots.