The Tampa Bay Lightning Midseason Awards

On the eve of All-Star Weekend, Chris Krenn and Thompson Brandes get together to hand out midseason trophies to the players and memorable moments of the 23-24 season. Some accolades will be real—awarded to the historic performances and milestones of note 50 games in. Others not so much—mainly here to celebrate the awesome, wacky and sometimes viral moments the season has had to offer. Cool? Cool. Let’s hand out some hardware.

The MVP Award

Nikita Kucherov

It doesn’t get much easier than this. There’s a reason Nikita Kucherov was the first overall selection in the NHL All-Star Draft. He’s the Lightning’s most valuable player and potentially the most valuable player in the NHL this season.

Through Tampa Bay’s first 50 games of the campaign, Kucherov has been involved in nearly half of the plays that end with the puck in the back of the net, factoring into an astonishing 48.9% of the team’s 174 goals.

Already up to 85 points on the year, the All-Star winger is on pace to record 140 points by the end of the season, which would break his franchise record 128-point year in 2018-19. It would also go down as the second-most points recorded in a single season by any NHL player this century, trailing only Connor McDavid’s 153 points from 2022-23.

Over the past several years, Lightning fans have had the pleasure of watching Kucherov put up point after point on a nightly basis. He can make elite defenders look lost on the ice. He puts nearly every pass right on the tape of his teammates. He sees the game in a way that only a handful of players in the league can.

And even though he’s looked a step ahead of everyone on the ice for years, could he possibly be getting better? Through his 49 games, Kucherov has been held off the scoresheet only 10 times. Meanwhile, he has recorded three or more points in 13 of those 49 games.

He’s shooting the puck a ton, ranking third in the NHL with 210 shots on goal as one of just five skaters with more than 200 shots so far this season. With that shot volume, Kucherov is already up to 32 goals on the year, the most he’s had in a single season since he scored 33 in 2019-20.

Kucherov is doing things on the ice that only some of the all-time greats have accomplished. This season, he hit the 50-assist mark before the 50^th game of the season for the third time of his career. He’s the only active player to even accomplish the feat twice and is one of just nine players in NHL history to hit the mark in three or more seasons. Adding his name to another list of legends, Kucherov joined Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Denis Savard, Bryan Trottier, Adam Oates and Peter Stastny.

There are countless facts/statistics I could continue to rattle off about Kucherov, but I’ll end with this one. Last season, only 21 skaters across the entire NHL recorded more than 85 points. Kucherov is already there, and the Lightning still have 32 games remaining in the regular season. It will be fun to see what that number looks like at the end of the year as he continues to battle with Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the Art Ross Trophy. - CK

The Biggest Flex Award

Nikita Kucherov’s Stick

Kucherov’s stick dropped three Face with Steam from Nose emojis onto the ice after sending this puck into the net in a win over the Penguins. I have no stats or analytics to measure the impressiveness of this photograph. But it’s one of the coolest shots of the season so far, a perfectly timed ode to one of the best wingers in the game. Kuch is conveniently competing in Friday night’s NHL All-Star Skills Competition, in which he’s selected to partake in the Tim Hortons NHL One Timers, Scotiabank NHL Passing Challenge, Upper Deck NHL Stick Handling and Cheetos NHL Accuracy Shooting challenges. Plenty of nationally televised opportunity for Kuch’s Vapor Hyperlite to flex. - TB

Best Defenseman Award

Victor Hedman

After the Lightning were eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, there may not have been any player who benefitted from the much-needed rest more than Victor Hedman.

A staple on the back end for over a decade, Hedman logged more minutes than any other NHL skater over the past four seasons when all the playoff games are added into the equation. Coming back to Tampa fresh and recharged for this season, it’s very clear that having a little bit of a longer summer was great for The Big Swede.

Through only 48 games this season, Hedman has already surpassed his point total from the 2022-23 campaign that saw him finish the year with 49 points on nine goals and 40 assists. At the All-Star break, he’s matched his goal total from last season with nine, while his 41 assists and 50 points have both bested last year’s numbers.

With injuries affecting some of the key pieces on Tampa Bay’s blue line like Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak, Hedman has had to step up and play big minutes. Over 12 games in January, he averaged 25:40 time on ice per game. And with all that ice time, the future Hall of Famer has thrived. Both his 41 assists and 50 points this season are the fourth-most among all NHL defensemen. He’s currently on pace to log 83 points by the end of the season, which would be the second-most points he’s recorded in a single campaign, trailing only his 85-point year in 2021-22.

Earlier this season, Hedman became the first defenseman in Lightning franchise history to skate in 1,000 career games with the club. He also became the first D-man in franchise history to record 700 career points and just the 28^th defenseman in NHL history to hit the milestone. Not only is he Tampa Bay’s best defenseman this season, but he’s also the best defenseman in the history of the franchise. - CK

The "Brothers Gotta Hug" Award

Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos

The most wholesome bros in hockey put on a tour de force of friendship for Hedman’s 1,000^th game, in which Stammer narrated a rousing pregame tribute to the Big Swede. The two have played together in Tampa since before they could legally hit MacDinton’s. They came up together, won Stanley Cups together. Now their bond is cemented with a milestone that only their former mentor has reached. Here’s to hoping they get matching #1000 tattoos. - TB

The Most Improved Award

Darren Raddysh

When Darren Raddysh was called up by the Lightning last season, he had just four games of NHL experience under his belt. Playing on a pair with Mikhail Sergachev, the two showed strong chemistry very quickly and Raddysh finished the regular season with an additional 17 games on his resume, along with one goal and two assists for three points.

After performing well near the end of the regular season and into the playoffs last year, it was pretty clear that Raddysh had earned a permanent spot with the big club for the 2023-24 campaign. But it may have been easy to forget that he still entered this season having played in only 21 career regular season games.

A big reason for that is his play on the ice. Raddysh hasn’t looked like a player with less than 100 games of NHL experience. Skating in all 50 games for the Bolts this season, his four goals are the second-most among all defensemen on the team, while his 18 points are good for third.

his 50^th career NHL game just before the break, it’s easy to see that Raddysh is settling in. That appeared to be kick-started near the beginning of January when he scored two goals in a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild.

Raddysh has found the scoresheet in six of the Lightning’s last eight games, scoring two goals and adding four assists during that span. He entered the All-Star break riding a three-game point streak and had a +5 rating in those three games.

Look for that confidence to carry over into the second half of the season as the Bolts make a push for the postseason. If he can continue to play the way he has over the past month, Raddysh could be a big factor in Tampa Bay clinching a playoff spot. - CK

The Now You Have My Attention Award

Anonymous Kraken Superfan

What a night for this devout Kraken fan, who likely did not wake up the morning of December 9^th to think he’d be the viral scapegoat of his favorite team’s overtime loss. But with the help of some excellent glass seats, unruly fandom and a little luck, that’s exactly what happened. As the PG-rated Fuss Around and Find Out chart tells us, it’s a dangerous game to chirp a top scorer in the league like Kucherov. And as a zero-percent bona fide reddit forum suggests, the Kraken fan in question may have had a bit of a beak on him. Immediately following Kuch and Hagel’s game-winning connection, the pair glided over like a tractor beam to presumably offer the fan and his friends free tickets to the game next time they were in Tampa. Even Mikhail Sergachev got in on the fun, flashing them his signature warm smile. Good on you, boys. - TB

The Heart and Soul Award

Luke Glendening

When the Lightning signed Luke Glendening this offseason, the team was acquiring a player that has been one of the best faceoff guys across the NHL for the past several years.

This year has been no different. Glendening has been dynamite at the dot for Tampa Bay, winning a team-high 56.7% of his faceoffs this year, tied for the seventh-highest win percentage across the entire NHL. But his impact has gone far beyond just faceoffs.

Glendening has recorded 61 hits, tied for the second-most among all Lightning forwards, and has blocked 32 shots along the way as well. Skating in all 50 games this season, Glendening has provided some key secondary scoring with eight goals, already more than he had all of last year and just four shy of the most he’s had in a single season.

A key cog on Tampa Bay’s penalty kill, Glendening broke the ice and scored the team’s first shorthanded goal of the season on January 11 against the Devils.

With the departures of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Pat Maroon and Corey Perry, Tampa Bay had to retool the fourth line this off-season. Glendening has been a fantastic addition and has played the game with passion and determination while also bringing valuable experience to the dressing room. - CK

The Pardon the Interruption Award

Andrei Vasilevskiy’s Postgame Presser Air Biscuit

In any other universe, Andrei Vasilevskiy’s first shutout since returning from back surgery is probably forgotten to the throes of time. Pretty standard stuff for the Big Cat given his history and the circumstances. But on this night, an unidentified backdoor sizzler had other plans. The biff heard ‘round the bay arrived with such perfect comedic timing that it forced a room full of professional journalists into a lighthearted round of the “It wasn’t me!” game. Vasy himself could barely keep his composure, forgetting the question at hand entirely. A gutsy performance could have been brushed aside that evening. But thanks to a little virality from one of America’s tried and true practical jokes, we’ll never forget Vasy’s valiant return to form against the Stars one December night. - TB