We all love scoring races.

Simple. Timeless. Universal. The pursuit of the Art Ross Trophy remains one of hockey’s iconic annual chases. We understand it, we follow it all year, and we embrace it. But we can’t kid ourselves either: points alone are an oversimplified, antiquated way to evaluate players.

More than a century ago, professional hockey leagues decided to call goals and assists equal. Back then, it made sense. Forward passes weren’t allowed yet, so assists were rare and only issued when impactful. It would take decades before the NHL settled on the current two-assist maximum per goal. Yet, here we are in 2025 anchored to those arbitrary guidelines from the days before sliced bread had been invented.

It’s time for points to get a makeover. Today, we’re modernizing the NHL’s scoring race.

Rewiring the Race

A goal being as valuable as an assist is a story a youth hockey coach tells you to encourage team play. But it’s long been established that points have a hierarchy. Goals… Primary assists… Secondary assists. The more direct a contribution is to a goal, the more impactful it is to the result.

Are certain assists more valuable than certain goals? Of course. We can all remember a time Connor McDavid’s brilliant dangles and vision set up a teammate with a tap-in. But this is the exception, not the rule. Even in 1948 when the Art Ross Trophy was created, it was accepted that goals bested assists — goals are the award’s tiebreaker.

Logically, secondary assists are a tier below. For comparison, basketball and soccer only award one assist per goal. Their definition is much stricter too, requiring a direct, uninterrupted pass — not simply tracing the play back for any contact with the puck.

So, how will our new scoring race work?

• Goal = 1.5 points
• Primary assist = 1 point
• Secondary assist = 0.5 points
• Empty net points = 50% of the above values
  
  

We’re not overhauling the scoring race we love — we’re improving it to better reward the impact we know exists within the definition of a point. The beauty of our weighted scoring system is that the above values will ensure it’s similar to the overall point totals on NHL.com.

As for penalizing empty net points? Not long ago, such points were scarce. Now, they’re prevalent. The single-season empty net point record has fallen in consecutive seasons. Nikita Kucherov’s 14 empty net points decided the scoring title a year ago. Mikko Rantanen extended that record to 16 this season. Empty net points have value. But absent a goalie, they can’t reasonably be considered equal.

Below is our weighted scoring system. It feels a lot fairer than the current accounting.

Now, let’s see it in action.

The Weighted NHL Scoring Race

Note: all stats through Monday, April 13

It’s intriguing to see the scoring race recast this way. By showing the type of points the league’s best contributed this season, there’s nowhere to hide. Empty net points leap off the page. A player’s assist split reveals even more. And goal scorers rightfully shoot up the weighted leaderboard.

To illustrate, we’re going to highlight five notable players who fall and rise under the new system.

📉 Falling

In baseball, an ’empty’ batting average belongs to a singles hitter that rarely walks. Their average looks great but the player provides much less offensive impact than we think. Hockey’s empty stat line? A player with big point totals but few goals, a ton of secondary assists, and empty net points for good measure.

Jack Eichel, Vegas (-9 points): Make no mistake, Eichel has had a great season. There have been whispers of Hart votes at various points. But his career-high 93 points are light, anchored by an NHL-best 39 secondary assists — a remarkable eight more than any other forward. While Eichel has been top 10 in points all season, he’s just 39th in primary points and tied for 20th in weighted points.

Evan Bouchard, Edmonton (-14 points): Defensemen are inevitably going to get fewer goals and more secondary assists by nature of the position. Bouchard’s split this year is nonetheless unflattering — a 39-14 edge in secondary to primary assists. It results in a 14-point drop from actual to weighted points, the most by any player.

Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado (-6 points): Finding fault with the reigning MVP’s season is nitpicking, given he’s scored at a 120-point pace and lost bestie Rantanen. But MacKinnon’s body of work shouldn’t be confused with last season’s crown jewel. His impressive point total is propped up by 13 empty net points (fourth most all-time) and his goal total fell by 20 (from 52 to 32). Most notably, Leon Draisaitl and David Pastrnak jump past MacKinnon in weighted points, dropping him from second to fourth.

Lane Hutson, Montreal (-13 points): To take nothing away from Hutson’s Calder-worthy debut, his point total is a little soft, no question. With just six goals and 19 primary assists, he actually has more secondary assists than primary points. This makes Hutson one of only four defensemen with 40+ points (Bouchard, Shayne Gostisbehere, and MacKenzie Weegar) with that kind of split.

Jesper Bratt, New Jersey (-9 points): The 26-year-old Bratt continues to produce, topping 80 points again this season. But the Swedish winger has beat an actual goalie just 18 times. Between his high secondary assist count (31) and empty net point bump, there’s a lot of good fortune inflating Bratt’s stat line.

Statistical Superlatives (minimum 40 points):

• Biggest Drop in Ranking, Forward: Chandler Stephenson (-29 spots)
• Biggest Drop in Ranking, Defenseman: John Carlson (-70 spots)
• Highest % of Points being Secondary Assists, Forward: Eichel (41.9%)
• Highest % of Points being Secondary Assists, Defenseman: Bouchard (58.2%)
• Most Empty Net Assists: MacKinnon (9)
• Highest % of Empty Net Points: Rantanen (18.4%)
  

📈 Rising

Using our baseball analogy, a power hitter that draws walks might have a low but ‘full’ batting average. Such a player contributes more offensively than we think. Hockey’s full stat line? A player with a modest point total that’s goal heavy and light on secondary assists and empty net points.

Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton (+12 points): Had Draisaitl not missed 10 games down the stretch, he’d have run away with the weighted scoring race. Through Monday night, he was still tied with Kucherov at 118. There’s no question that points undersell Draisaitl’s MVP-level season. His 52 goals in 70 games and modest four empty net points paint a picture of the best overall scorer this year.

Cole Caufield, Montreal (+14 points): Caufield’s stat line stands out. First, he has zero empty net points. So, he’s spotting Rantanen 16 points out of the gate. You can argue Martin St. Louis doesn’t trust him yet defensively, but the list of empty net point leaders is full of serial defensive liabilities. Caufield also has just 11 secondary assists. With only 14 last season, his style clearly lends itself to few assists. But with 37 goals and few cheap points, Caufield’s point total deserves more respect.

Tage Thompson, Buffalo (+15 points): Thompson’s actual vs. weighted point shortfall is the most in the NHL. While he’s 10 inches taller than Caufield, the two are an archetype — a shoot-first player with great finishing ability whose team depends on his sniping. Thompson jumps 21 spots in the race by weighted points.

Jacob Chychrun, Washington (+3 points): While three points hardly seem notable, Chychrun rising in weighted points as a defenseman is quite the feat. The only 40-point defenders to join him are Brandon Montour, Elias Pettersson, and Jackson LaCombe — each blueliner has more goals than secondary assists. Impactful points.

William Nylander, Toronto (+10 points): Second only to Draisaitl in goals, Nylander further highlights the basic scoring race’s flaws. You have to scroll to 18th to find his name in points, just barely a point-per-game guy. But his elite goal count and low second assist total reveal Nylander to be the #9 weighted scorer in the NHL — nearly 100 points and among the league’s very best.

Honorable Mentions: David Pastrnak; Mark Scheifele; Brayden Point; Alex Ovechkin

Statistical Superlatives (minimum 40 points):

• Biggest Rise in Ranking, Forward: Zach Hyman (+44 spots)
• Biggest Rise in Ranking, Defenseman: Chychrun (+6 spots)
• Lowest % of Points being Secondary Assists, Forward: Ryan Donato (9.8%)
• Highest % of Points being Secondary Assists, Defenseman: Elias Pettersson (24.4%)
• 30+ Goals Without an Empty Net Goal: Caufield (37); Pavel Dorofeyev (33)
• Most Points Without an Empty Net Assist: Clayton Keller (0 on 85 points)
  

Closing Thoughts

Weighted points aren’t a statement that assists don’t matter. Or that empty net goals have no value. Or an attempt to rewrite a century of scoring races. But by tying ourselves to points — an outdated scoring system from an unrecognizable era — we lose perspective on player contributions to goal-scoring plays.

Some players’ point totals overstate their value, while others’ go underappreciated. Of course, the NHL isn’t going to shift to weighted scoring for 2025-26. But I’d challenge you to look closer at points going forward. Despite how ingrained they are in our hockey lives, each point is not created equal.

Visit adjustedhockey.com; data from Natural Stat Trick; NHL.com

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