"When he shows up in Tampa, Florida, in July, when it's 100 percent humidity and nobody is here, and he's renting out the ice himself to work on his game," Cooper said, "I see how his production totals have gone up."
Work ethic on the ice is also a key factor. It's not as if Kucherov is standing around and waiting for Stamkos to set him up, or waiting to set up Stamkos.
Kucherov's vision and intelligence, Cooper said, are significant and underrated parts of his game.
"He sees what's going to happen next in the game before the player he's going against sees it," Cooper said. "It's impressive. Like, he's such a sneaky little forechecker because he knows what the defender is going to do before the defender knows what he's going to do. That's why he often comes away with pucks, because he's so good at that."
Kucherov has been so good at everything this season, bringing the spotlight on himself, even if he'd prefer the coverage of the shadows.
"People talking, like 'He's a star,' or something like that, I'm not putting that in my head and thinking about it," Kucherov said. "If I do, my game is going to go a different way. I just focus on my game. We're here for one reason, to make the playoffs and win the Cup."
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis):Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning, 83 points (13 first-place votes); Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning, 56 points (five first-place votes), Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues, 20; Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings, 16; Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg Jets, 15; John Tavares, New York Islanders, 13; Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues, 12; Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers, 11; Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg Jets, 9; Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings, 4; Mark Stone, Ottawa Senators, 4; Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs, 4; Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals; 3; Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames, 3; Erik Karlsson, Ottawa Senators, 3; Jaden Schwartz, St. Louis Blues, 3; Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks, 3; Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus Blue Jackets, 2; James Neal, Vegas Golden Knights, 2; Roman Josi, Nashville Predators, 2; Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning, 1