Every week throughout the 2020-21 season, we're highlighting a handful of rookie performances and milestones from around the league.
Tolvanen helping drive Predators' recent run
The Nashville Predators closed out the month of March with a six-game win streak that saw them jump from sure deadline sellers to... well, we're not totally sure just yet. What we do know is that there's a rookie at the centre of this club's recent success: Eeli Tolvanen. The 21-year-old scored at least a point in all six of those Nashville victories, tallying three goals and nine points during that stretch. Two of his goals were game-winners.
Tolvanen's six-game point streak ended on Thursday night against the Dallas Stars. It marks the longest point streak by a rookie so far this season and falls just one game shy of matching the franchise record held by Filip Forsberg, who in 2014-15 put on a real show with seven goals and 13 points in a seven-game stretch.
In 29 games this season, Tolvanen has registered a total of nine goals and 18 points, including five power-play markers, 10 power-play points, three game-winning goals and one OT winner. Those power-play figures lead all rookies this year, and his 14 points within March ranked second among first-year skaters.
Selected 30th overall by the Predators back in 2017, Tolvanen's development has been a topic of much discussion in Nashville. But it's clear the patient approach — taken both by the team and the player — is now beginning to pay off, with Tolvanen's arrival coming at the best possible time for Nashville as the club embarks on what's expected to be a retooling of the roster.
Can Stars' Robertson extend red-hot March stats into April?
Speaking of streaking, the Stars — who put an end to Nashville's win streak on Thursday — have a red-hot rookie of their own who's now put together a three-game goal streak.
Forward Jason Robertson, who we wrote about last week, has been excellent this season, not just writing his name into the Calder Trophy conversation but making it bold and underlining it, too.
No rookie had more points than Robertson in the month of March with 16 (five goals and 11 assists), and as the Stars try to climb out of seventh in the Central and into contention, Robertson's offensive efforts will surely factor into any success. Overall, Robertson has eight goals and 23 points in 29 games for second place among all first-year players league-wide.
Kaprizov hits 30
Robertson is now seven points away from catching rookie scoring leader Kirill Kaprizov, whose remarkable freshman campaign with the Minnesota Wild has seen him tally 13 goals and 30 points in 35 games.
Nedeljkovic named top rookie of March
March brought plenty of rookie success, as evidenced by the three skaters we highlighted above, but it's goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic who took home the NHL's rookie-of-the-month honours thanks to his breakout play for the Carolina Hurricanes.
The 25-year-old has finally emerged as the solid netminder the franchise believed he could be when they drafted him in the second round of 2014, and it couldn't have come at a better time for the team with starter Petr Mrazek dealing with a long-term injury for the past two months.
Nedeljkovic started eight games in March (two more than teammate James Reimer) and finished the month with a 6-1-1 record, a 1.85 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage. In 13 starts this season, he's posted a .927 save percentage and 2.05 GAA — both stats have him atop the rookie rankings among all first-year goalies with a minimum of 10 appearances this year.
The Hurricanes' crease now brings some intrigue, with Carolina GM Don Waddell telling The Athletic's Sara Civian last week that "if we’re gonna do something at the trade deadline, maybe one of the chips is one of our goalies. I can’t say which one. It depends."
Once Mrazek returns, the club will have three goalies. All three are on expiring deals, with Mrazek and Reimer currently set to be UFAs.
"I think as you look at the way the schedule is and, hopefully going deep in the playoffs, you’d think you’d want to have three goalies," Waddell went on to tell Civian. "So I think this is a good problem to have, and we’ll find a way to keep three goalies on the roster if we need to."
Stanley's patience pays off with gorgeous first goal
Winnipeg Jets defenceman Logan Stanley makes his presence known every time he's on the ice. The six-foot-seven rookie rearguard has been getting better and better all season, and considering how often we've seen that booming shot of his, it was only a matter of time before he'd be rewarded on the score sheet.
Well, that reward finally came last Saturday night with a gorgeous bar-down beauty of a goal against the Calgary Flames. His first career NHL goal came on his 36th shot of the season, in his 23rd career NHL game:
With a shot quality (and quantity) like that, it feels like we're in for plenty more goals from Stanley.
