NHL Three Stars: Lightning's Stamkos and Kucherov Own the Ice along with Penguins' Nedeljkovic

The third-to-last week of the NHL season has come and gone, and within it, Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov tore it up for the Tampa Bay Lightning, while Alex Nedeljkovic stood tall in net for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

This is THN.com’s Three Stars of the Week, a regular web feature in which we pick out three NHLers who made the most impressive impact over the past week. Here are our choices this week:

As the Lightning continued to play very well this week, two of their players stood out as the best in the league. The first is Stamkos, who generated an NHL-best six goals and seven points in four games. The 34-year-old winger’s goal total this season is now 36 in 74 games, which is two better than his total of 34 in 81 games last year.

Stamkos is in the final season of his current contract with an $8.5-million salary cap hit, and he’s making a good case to be signed – by one team or another – for very close to that cap hit. There aren’t many elite scorers who can put up close to 40 goals per year, and while the Bolts have cap issues to confront, their fans would not like seeing Stamkos in a different jersey next season. The question with Stamkos may be more about the term he’s seeking in a new contract more than the dollar amount he’s costing them per year. But one thing is clear – he’s thriving as he nears his mid-thirties, and that’s going to result in another big boost to his bank account.

The Penguins were on life support just a few weeks ago, but they’ve turned around their game in recent days, and Nedeljkovic is one of the big reasons why. The veteran goaltender posted a 4-0-0 record this week, along with a 2.50 goals-against average and .917 save percentage, lifting the Pens back into a playoff position. The 28-year-old now has a .907 SP and a 2.82 G.A.A. in 33 appearances, and he’s done more than his part to get the Penguins back in the race for the final wild card playoff position in the Eastern Conference.

Nedeljkovic is scheduled to be a UFA this summer, and if he doesn’t sign a contract extension before then, he’ll still have earned a major raise on the $1.5 million he’s making this season, and you’d best believe there’ll be a number of teams lining up to take him off Pittsburgh’s hands. He’s been inconsistent over the past few years, but Nedeljkovic is showing what he can do at his best, and that element alone will give teams good reason to sign him to a far more lucrative deal.

This is the second time in three weeks that Kucherov has been one of the three stars, but it’s the first time this season he’s the first star. With nine assists and 10 points in four games, Kucherov was the league’s best point-producer, and he now has 93 assists and 136 points in 76 games. The Art Ross Trophy is clearly within his grasp, and it’s now about finishing off the regular season with more consistently excellent play on the offensive end.

At 30 years old, Kucherov is in his prime, and he is making a strong case to win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player. The Lightning have become one of the NHL’s best teams of late, but Kucherov has been doing the heavy lifting for them all season long. And with 865 points in 720 career regular-season games, Kucherov could become a member of the thousand-point club as early as next season. Kucherov is a dynamo and a threat to score every time he is on the ice, and so long as he’s functioning on his current level, Tampa Bay will be a handful.