Sure, Auston Matthews scores a lot of goals, and Nathan MacKinnon gets a lot of points. But who are the top NHL players in scoring the points that matter the most?

When it comes to goal-scoring in the NHL, the old saying goes, “They don’t ask how. They ask how many.” With a unique stat called Situational Scoring, they don’t ask how many, they ask how many of them meant something.” 

What makes it different from every other stat out there in the NHL is that it tracks only the important points, the ones that matter. Garbage points need not apply.

As always, there are a couple of things to note, the most important being that goals are weighted more heavily than assists, with goals worth one point and assists worth half a point. In this system, goals can be worth more than one point and assists worth more than a half a point. For example, the first goal of a game is automatically worth two points, one for being the first goal of the game and one for putting that player’s team ahead in a game. An overtime goal is worth three: one for putting the team ahead, one for being the game-winner, and one for the overtime goal. If that is the only goal in a 1-0 game, it’s worth four.

It can all be a little confusing, so here’s a glossary:

FIRST: When a player scores the first goal of the game.
AHEAD: Any goal that puts a team ahead at any point in the game, including overtime.
TIED: Any goal that pulls a team into a tie at any point in the game.
COMEBACK: A goal that is scored when a team is trailing by two goals or more and is part of a series of goals that eventually ties the game, regardless of the ultimate outcome of the game.
WINNER: A game-winning goal, but not by the NHL’s definition. The game-winner in this category is the goal that puts a team ahead in a game to stay. So in other words, you could have a 7-6 game and maybe the first goal of the game was the game-winner.
OT: Overtime goal.
SO: Only shootout game-winning goals are counted in this category.
NHL: Where the player stands in the actual NHL scoring race.

You’re not going to find the likes of Cole Caufield or Vincent Trocheck in the NHL’s top 25 scorers, but they’re there in Situational Scoring. That’s what makes this stat fun.