Colorado Avalanche centre and captain Nathan MacKinnon of Halifax, Nova Scotia won the Rocket Richard Trophy for the first time in his National Hockey League career on Thursday. The award is named after former Montreal Canadiens superstar Maurice “Rocket” Richard of Montreal, Quebec, and is presented to the NHL player who leads the league in goals every season.
In 2025-26, MacKinnon had a career-high 53 goals. This was the second time in MacKinnon’s career he had 50 goals in a season. In 2023-24, MacKinnon had 51 goals. MacKinnon also led the NHL this past season in plus/minus (+57), even strength goals (42), and shots on goal (350). He also had 11 power-play goals.
It is interesting that MacKinnon won the Rocket Richard Trophy without recording a hat trick. He did however have 14 two-goal games. MacKinnon was one of two players this season to reach 50 goals. The other was Cole Caufield of the Montreal Canadiens, who had 51 goals.
MacKinnon also had 74 assists, 127 points, 39 penalty minutes, 30 power-play points, 681 faceoff wins, 35 blocked shots, 64 hits, 25 takeaways, and 165 giveaways. He was a major reason why the Avalanche led the NHL with 302 goals.
The Avalanche now head into the 2026 NHL postseason as the number one seed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They led the NHL with 121 regular season points and won the Presidents’ Trophy.
