Here are the NHL’s top 5 goal scorers in the Maurice Richard Trophy race without empty-net goals
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The Maurice Richard Trophy race kept Montreal Canadiens fans engaged until the final seconds of the regular season.
He decided to subtract all empty-net goals to determine who the NHL’s true top sniper is against actual goaltenders.
“Caufield finishes the season with 51 goals. His achievement is even more impressive considering he did not score a single empty-net goal.
For fun, here is the goal-scoring leaderboard with empty-net goals removed:
51 Caufield
45 MacKinnon
44 Robertson
44 Johnston
42 McDavid
39 Kaprizov
– Luc Gélinas
Cole Caufield leads NHL goal scoring without empty-net goals, redefining the race
By removing those much easier goals, the Canadiens’ undersized forward stands alone at the top of the NHL with 51 goals.
Empty-net goals this season:
8 MacKinnon
7 Kucherov
7 Ovechkin
7 Hagel
6 players tied
In this revised ranking, Nathan MacKinnon drops to second place with 45 goals, having scored 8 empty-net goals this season (a league-high).
Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston follow with 44 goals each, just ahead of Connor McDavid (42 goals) and Kirill Kaprizov (39 goals).
Knowing that the Canadiens’ star forward has beaten a real goaltender more often than any other top player in the league is a major point of pride.
Scoring 51 legitimate goals in this manner shows he is simply in a class of his own.
He clearly does not need to inflate his stats late in games to prove his value.
Martin St-Louis also knew exactly what he was doing in recent weeks when sending other players onto the ice to protect a lead.
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Here are the NHL’s top 5 goal scorers in the Maurice Richard Trophy race without empty-net goals
Should the Maurice Richard Trophy exclude empty-net goals?