Adam Proteau looks at the NHL's top performers of the past week, highlighting a goalie's victorious stretch, a scoring Coyote and a bolt of offence in Tampa Bay. This is THN.com’s Three Stars of the Week, an ongoing column in which we pick out the three top NHL players of the past seven days. Simple, right? Let’s get straight to it.
3. BRANDON HAGEL, LIGHTNING ********************************** A couple of people – namely, Avalanche stars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, who each had nine points in four games – had slightly more productive weeks, but Hagel gets the nod for the third star because he generated four goals and eight points (including two game-winners and two shorthanded assists) in four games. Hagel’s most recent game came against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, and the 24-year-old netted his second-career hat trick to give himself a career-best 27 goals and 59 points in 70 games. The fact Hagel is playing on the Lightning’s top line with stars Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point certainly helps him on the points-getting front, but Hagel also has five goals and nine points in his past five games, proving he’s making good use of the top-line minutes. If the Bolts are going to make noise in the playoffs, they’ll be looking to Hagel to contribute offensively the way he has this week. 2. CLAYTON KELLER, COYOTES ******************************** Keller led the league in goals this week with five, including one game-winning marker. The Arizona forward is on an eight-game points streak, putting up seven goals and 16 points in that span. He has demolished his previous career highs of 28 goals, 42 assists and 65 points, posting 32 goals, 43 assists and 75 points in 70 games this season. Keller is far and away the Coyotes’ top point producer, as the next-best ‘Yote in the points department is Nick Schmaltz, who has 21 goals and 47 points in 51 games. There were some questions about Keller being available via trade, but we can see why Keller is one of the few untouchables on the sad-sack Coyotes. At 24 years old, he’s young enough to be part of Arizona’s complete-and-total rebuild, and with his cap hit of $7.15 million for the next five seasons, the Coyotes desperately need him to continue leading the way on offence. Keller is one of the league’s up-and-coming stars up front, and it would be great if we could see how productive he can actually be on a team that, unlike the Coyotes, wins more games than they lose. 1. IGOR SHESTERKIN, NEW YORK RANGERS ********************************************* With five wins in their past six games (5-0-1), the Rangers are on a roll, and superstar goaltender Shesterkin is one of the key drivers behind it. Shesterkin went 3-0-0 in three appearances this week, with a .948 save percentage, 1.67 goals-against average, one shutout and one assist. The 27-year-old Russian is currently enjoying a five-game win streak, which has given him a 32-11-7 record this season. And while his individual statistics (including a 2.57 GAA and .912 SP) weren’t up to his career highs of a 2.07 GAA and .935 SP (both set last season), Shesterkin has a chance to improve on his career-best 36 wins (also set last year). With 50 appearances thus far this season, he will certainly pass his career-high of 53 games played. The Rangers have wobbled at times this season, and Shesterkin has not had consistent support – 13 of his defeats this year came when the Rangers scored two goals or fewer – but he’s still one of the league’s premier netminders. Any team the Blueshirts play in the coming post-season will be well-aware Shesterkin can flat-out steal games. He’s in his prime, and after the NHL’s trade deadline, he’s playing in front of arguably the Rangers’ best line up in recent memory, so expect Shesterkin’s numbers to improve in the final stretch of the regular season.
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