NHL Star Power Index: Kyle Connor leading surging Jets, Nico Hischier is scoring at will for Devils

Welcome to the NHL Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the players who are controlling substantial buzz around the league. When a player is included on this list it may not be a good thing — it means that they are capturing a large amount of the hockey world’s attention.

These players are in no particular order when it comes to the amount of buzz that they’re creating. We’ll revisit the Star Power Index every week throughout the regular season.

The Winnipeg Jets have looked like an absolute juggernaut out of the gate this season, and star winger Kyle Connor has been at the forefront of that success.

Connor has begun the season on a 10-game point streak, and has scored a goal in seven of his last eight games. With a goal and two assists in Wednesday’s 6-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings, Connor became the fourth American-born player in NHL history to begin a season with a 10-game point streak as he joined Kevin Stevens (1992-93), Pat LaFontaine (1992-93), and Darren Turcotte (1990-91).

Connor also registered his 500th career point in Wednesday’s contest, and became just the third player in franchise history to reach that milestone.

Wednesday’s performance marked the fourth consecutive game in which Connor tallied multiple points. He also registered all three of his points in the opening period of that particular contest.

After recording an assist on Winnipeg’s opening two goals of the game, Connor started the rush in his own zone before dishing it off to teammate Gabriel Vilardi in the offensive zone. Vilardi connected with Connor around the net, and Connor tucked the puck into the net on an impressive backhanded tally.

Following Wednesday’s showing, Connor is currently tied for second in goals (9) in the NHL. Connor was even tied for the league lead before Nico Hischier scored in Wednesday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks.

While it’s still early, Connor is currently on pace to record 139 points on the year.

It’s hard to find anyone across the league that’s making plays at the absurd rate in which Connor is. After tallying a single point in each of the first six contests, now the Jets forward has racked up multiple points in four consecutive games to ramp up his offensive production.

Nico Hischier is pacing a New Jersey Devils that could make a lot of noise in the Eastern Conference thus far. In fact, the Devils captain is tied for the league lead in goals (10) with Montreal Canadiens winger Cole Caufield through the opening month of the season.

In Wednesday’s dominant 6-0 win against the Canucks, Hischier tallied a goal and two assists, and the goal ended up being his 10th of the campaign to overtake the NHL lead in that department.

Hischier reached the 10-goal mark in just 13 games, which is a historic milestone in its own right. Only Paul Gardner (nine games in 1977-78) and Pat Verbeek (10 games in 1986-87) scored 10 goals in fewer games than it took Hischier to accomplish the feat.

Hischier didn’t waste any time getting into the scoring column as his goal came just 53 seconds into Wednesday’s game. Devils forward Dawson Mercer gained control of the puck in the neutral zone and began a two-on-one with Hischier heading into the offensive zone. Mercer remained patient as he entered the Canucks zone before dishing the puck over to Hischier, who lifted it over the blocker of Vancouver goaltender Arturs Silovs.

While it was quite impressive to score so quickly, Hischier’s night was far from over.

Just 1:35 into the second period, Hischier had an opportunity to return the favor to Mercer. Hischier was able to take the puck away from Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes in the defensive zone, and it was off to the races. The Devils star ripped off a shot that Silovs was able to stop, but Mercer was right in position to bang home the rebound.

Hischier also earned the primary assist on Timo Meier’s goal less than two minutes later.

The Devils captain may be putting the puck in the net at an extremely high rate, but Hischier is also just four points away from the league lead in points (19). After being hit with the injury bug quite frequently in his first few NHL seasons, Hischier has shed that label and developed into a tremendous two-way asset for the Devils.

Alex Pietrangelo has been a huge part of the Vegas Golden Knights back end since he landed with the franchise back in 2020. Despite being in the later years of his career, Pietrangelo has continued to provide incredible stability on the Golden Knights blue line at the start of the season.

Pietrangelo has recorded a goal and 11 assists throughout the opening month of the campaign, and is tied for second in points (12) among defensemen in the entire NHL. Entering Friday, the veteran defenseman also is tied for third on the Golden Knights in points (12), while also ranking third on the team in assists (11).

Pietrangelo recently tallied his first goal of the new season in a 5-0 win against the Calgary Flames on Monday.

Just 6:39 into Monday’s contest, Golden Knights forward William Karlsson was able to dig the puck free from behind the net, and get it over to teammate Alexander Holtz, who was in the face-off circle with a defender draped all over him. Holtz immediately dished the puck to a wide-open Pietrangelo, and the Vegas defenseman uncorked a snap shot that went over the blocker of Flames goaltender Dan Vladar.

Pietrangelo has really displayed spectacular vision on the ice in recent weeks. He’s racked up a goal and eight assists over his last past games, including tallying multiple assists in three of those contests.

The Golden Knights are off to a strong start with the second-most points (15) in the Western Conference, and Pietrangelo play on the blue line has a lot to do with the team’s offensive acumen. If Pietrangelo can continue to provide his playmaking ability on the team’s top defensive pairing, Vegas could certainly be a Stanley Cup contender yet again.

One of the biggest storylines throughout the 2024 offseason was the Boston Bruins coming to terms with Jeremy Swayman on a lucrative contract extension. Swayman did sign an eight-year, $66 million ($8.25 million AAV) in early October right before the season got underway.

In the early going of the new season, Swayman hasn’t exactly lived up to the huge contract extension that he received.

Swayman has put together a 3-4-1 record, a 3.57 goals-against-average, and a .884 save percentage in eight games this season. The Bruins netminder has surrendered at least four goals in four of those starts.

Most recently, Swayman gave up six goals in an 8-2 loss against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, and didn’t even last two periods before being pulled in favor of Joonas Korpisalo. The Bruins goalie was only able to stop 16 of the 22 shots that he faced throughout his time in the crease in Thursday’s outing.

Swayman has let in 13 goals in his last three starts, which have resulted in the Bruins being outscored 16-8 during that stretch.

Obviously, Swayman wasn’t the team’s starting goaltender at the beginning of the season while he got ramped up into game shape. That certainly could explain the rough start. Still, the Bruins are definitely going to need Swayman to return to form if they want to have any hopes of challenging the Florida Panthers for the top spot in the Atlantic Division this season.