Top Five Breakout NHL Players So Far in 2023-24

One of the best parts about sports is watching players live up to their potential. Sometimes, they even go one better — hitting heights that no one expected and sustaining that excellence.

We're now deep enough into the 2023-24 NHL season to assess which players' breakout performances from this year are promising indications they've hit that next level and aren't just on a hot streak.

For this article, a 'breakout player' is defined as a non-rookie who is tracking for a significant personal best while also making an important contribution to his team. 

Team struggles have relegated forwards Kirill Marchenko of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Marco Rossi of the Minnesota Wild to honorable mention status despite strong individual campaigns.

These five have been the biggest difference-makers.

So far, Hughes' first season as captain in Vancouver has been a dream. With just one playoff appearance in the last eight years — in the 2020 bubble — the Canucks have been mainstays near the top of the NHL standings this year. 

Individually, Hughes has already set a new personal best in goal-scoring and is leading all defensemen in points while also hovering within the overall top 10. It's tough to improve on a career-high 76 points from last season, especially after his 68-point season in 2021-22, but Hughes' performance so far is certainly breakout-worthy.

Bigger forwards often need a little more time to settle into their bodies. That appears to be the case for Quinton Byfield, who checks in at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds. 

Still just 21, the second overall pick from 2020 has already hit career highs with eight goals and 23 points in just 29 games this season. He's part of an ultra-deep forward group on a Kings team that has also been racking up the wins.

Drafted eight picks after Byfield in 2020, Perfetti checks in at a more modest 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds. But after injuries slowed his development arc over the last two seasons, the talented forward hit the 100-game mark of his NHL career on Wednesday night with a new career high of 10 goals and counting this season. With 21 points, he's now more than two-thirds of the way to matching his 30-point total from last season.

Perfetti has grown into a power-play mainstay on a Jets team that has taken over top spot in the Central, and his shooting percentage has spiked from single digits up to 14.9 percent this season.

At 26 years old, Ingram's 12-6-0 record and .919 save percentage are key reasons why the Arizona Coyotes are flirting with their first playoff spot since the 2020 bubble. 

It's been a long road for the 2016 third-round pick, who didn't make his NHL debut until 2021 and had just 30 games in the league on his resume prior to this season.

Former Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher signed this hulking defender to a max-term, $50-million contract extension in the summer of 2022 but was ousted before the deal kicked in this fall. Now, new GM Danny Briere is reaping the benefits as Sanheim anchors the blueline for the surprising Flyers. 

With 22 points in 30 games, the 27-year-old could easily eclipse his previous career high of 35 points. More importantly, he has become a prime minute-muncher — keeping company with the likes of Doughty and Heiskanen as he logs more than 25 minutes per game.