Kaprizov, McDavid Lead NHL Scoring Showdown as Wild Visit Oilers

Tuesday’s 11-game NHL slate has a marquee scoring race running through Edmonton, where Kirill Kaprizov and Connor McDavid bring the League’s hottest numbers into the same building. Minnesota visits the Oilers at 9 p.m. ET, with Kaprizov carrying an NHL-best 10 goals through nine games and McDavid sitting atop the scoring chart with 23 points.

McDavid has posted multiple points in six of his first eight outings. If he reaches 25 points against the Wild, he would become the sixth player in League history to get there before playing a 10th game in a season. Mario Lemieux did it three times, with 33 points in 1988-89; Mike Bossy had 28 in 1984-85; Wayne Gretzky did it twice, including 27 points in 1984-85; Brent Sutter reached 25 in 1984-85; and Marcel Dionne had 25 in 1979-80.

Late in the night, Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has a chance to move to the top of another franchise scoring list. The Lightning winger enters the game at Vegas needing four points to overtake Steven Stamkos as Tampa Bay’s all-time points leader. Kucherov has amassed 1,134 points, made up of 404 goals and 730 assists, in 887 games with the club. Stamkos finished his Lightning tenure with 1,137 points in 1,082 games from 2008 through 2024.

A four-point night would be a familiar kind of explosion for Kucherov, who already owns the Lightning record with 42 such games. He also takes a 14-game point streak against Vegas into the matchup. Only four active players have longer streaks against one opponent: Leon Draisaitl has points in 20 straight against Chicago, McDavid has an 18-game run against Nashville, and Matthew Tkachuk and Artemi Panarin each have 15-game streaks against Columbus and Montreal, respectively.

Washington hosts Los Angeles with Alex Ovechkin two assists from another Capitals benchmark. Ovechkin needs two helpers to pass Nicklas Backstrom’s franchise record of 762 and reach 763. The 41-year-old has recorded an assist in each of his past two games and already owns Washington’s records for goals, with 930, and total points, with 1,691. Those totals rank first and 10th in NHL history.

In his final NHL season, Ovechkin could become the fourth player born outside North America to hold one franchise’s career lead in goals, assists and points. Aleksander Barkov has done so in Florida, Patrik Elias in New Jersey and Daniel Alfredsson in Ottawa.

Milestones on the board

Vegas remains first overall at 8-2-0 and 16 points, with Jack Eichel driving much of that start. Eichel is second in NHL scoring behind McDavid after putting up five goals and 13 assists in 10 games. The North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, native had 19 points through 10 games last season, on eight goals and 11 assists.

Kevin Stevens is the only other U.S.-born player to record at least 18 points through 10 games in more than one season. Stevens had 26 points in 1992-93 and 19 in 1990-91.

In Dallas, Jason Robertson brings 497 career points into the Stars’ home date with Boston. Robertson has 216 goals and 281 assists across 464 NHL games, including three goals and four assists in eight games this season. Three points would give him 500 and place him among the quickest players in Stars and Minnesota North Stars history to reach that mark.

Only Neal Broten, in 461 games; Bobby Smith, in 463; Dino Ciccarelli, in 465; and Mike Modano, in 489, got to 500 points in fewer than 500 games for the franchise. Robertson, from Arcadia, California, would also become the seventh-fastest U.S.-born player to reach 500 points, behind Jeremy Roenick, Kevin Stevens, Craig Janney, Auston Matthews, Joe Mullen and Broten.

Tuesday’s puck drops