9 NHL Players Who Are Slated to Break Out Next Season
Breakout seasons are the most fun a player can have and it creates so much excitement for their teammates.
For the fans, it gives them hope for the future knowing they might be watching the next superstar in the league.
Fewer things are more exciting in the NHL than seeing a young player hitting their stride and becoming a player you have to make time to watch. The future can bring about anything and that player realizing their potential--or maybe playing out of their mind for a full year--it's glorious.
The other fun part of breakout seasons is trying to figure out which player(s) will be the next ones to shine. Fortunately, that's what we're here to do.
Looking out around the league, a breakout star generally is a young player that's had a taste of the NHL and showed something in those shining moments that there's more to come. Not everyone can be Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, or Alex Ovechkin and blow up on the scene immediately. For breakout players, the fuse gets lit early on and the explosion of goals and assists that comes later on can be fit for the 4th of July.
We picked out nine players to keep your eyes on when October comes. Come join us and be the ultimate hockey hipster and say you were there before they became huge stars.
Luke Hughes - New Jersey Devils
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We got a brief glimpse of what the Devils will get to enjoy from Luke Hughes last season and the mix of his abilities with New Jersey's high-octane attack will create a lot of headaches for opposing teams for years to come.
Once Hughes arrived from the University of Michigan, he jumped into the lineup and put up a goal and an assist in his first two NHL games. Come playoff time, he found his way into three games and had two assists. Not bad for a 19-year-old who just got done with his finals.
What will allow him to make a massive impact next season? Aside from his gifted ability to skate with the puck and create offense either with a pass or a shot, the Devils moved on from Damon Severson, trading him to Columbus and opening a spot in New Jersey's top four on defense. Hughes should slide into that position seamlessly and get plenty of time on the power play as well.
More minutes, more opportunities and more puck touches create the perfect recipe for a breakout. The Devils were one of the league's best teams last season as it was and an offensive player like Hughes at the blue line gives them an entirely new means of scoring goals.
Jakob Pelletier - Calgary Flames
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Last season should've been a bright spot in Jakob Pelletier's career.
He got to make his NHL debut with the Calgary Flames and fulfill a lifelong dream. But former head coach Darryl Sutter turned that entire situation into a needless fiasco and it was an unfortunately perfect example of why the Flames season went so sideways.
With a new plan of attack in place and a fresher way of playing hockey - one that ideally involves more offense (Calgary was 19th in goals for) than excessive nit-picking about defending - it opens things up for the offensively gifted Pelletier to not just see more opportunities in Calgary, but become a prime contributor.
Pelletier was Calgary's first-round pick in 2019 and on his way up the ladder, he's shown a tremendous knack for scoring. He did it in bunches in junior hockey and two years ago in the AHL, he had 62 points in 66 games as a 20-year-old. Last season he was again great in the AHL but things were...not ideal...in Calgary. Things should be much different this season.
Sure, lots of players seem to want to get out of Calgary ASAP, but Pelletier will be more than happy to take advantage of the opportunity it will provide. Tyler Toffoli going to New Jersey opens up a spot in the first two scoring lines, a position Pelletier is ideally suited to take over.
Lukas Reichel - Chicago Blackhawks
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Bet you thought this Chicago-based slide was going to be about Connor Bedard, didn't you? Ha! Got you.
In most rebuilding seasons, Lukas Reichel would've played a ton of minutes with loads of opportunities to show what he can do against NHL competition. Of course, last season for Chicago was not a normal one, not with the possibility of landing Bedard in the lottery and management stripping the roster down for parts. Even still, Reichel had 15 points in 23 games. That glimpse on a really bad team was enough to know Chicago's got more than Bedard to work with in the years to come.
Now with Bedard ready to take over with Chicago and things ready to take off again, Reichel's opportunity to show what he can do in the NHL full-time is at hand. When he wasn't in the NHL last season, he had 51 points in 55 games with Rockford in the AHL, a year after he had 57 in 56 games as a 19-year-old. Young guys don't usually score like that in a league as tough as the AHL, but he did.
What Reichel does this season on a Chicago team that is going to absolutely go through it again, albeit not as roughly, will be worth watching and if he can become Bedard's right-hand man on a scoring line or on the power play, that's a bond that could last for years to come. I know we're not too far removed from Chicago being a perennial top team in the league, but it might be ready to happen all over again very soon.
Juraj Slafkovský - Montréal Canadiens
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Juraj Slafkovský's first NHL season didn't go the way either he or the Montréal Canadiens intended.
Slafkovský was limited to 39 games because of injury. He posted four goals and six assists and those aren't the kinds of numbers teams really want to see from the No. 1 pick in the draft in their first season. But injuries are cruel and the Canadiens had injuries galore.
This season, things should be much different in Québec.
A fit and healthy Slafkovský will have the opportunity to take over within the Canadiens' lineup and use his size and skill to give them a power forward with tremendous offensive ability. When he was in the Habs lineup last season, he played mostly with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson. It wouldn't be too surprising if he's with one or both of them again.
It speaks to Slafkovský's reputation that he could just slide into the lineup and become an instant factor. A lot of teams would look at a player with so few games played against top competition and want to take time to ease him in. That the Canadiens are doing so at the NHL level says they believe in him and that he can learn and excel because of it.
It could take him a little bit of time to get back up to speed, but once he does it, it should give Montréal a difference maker up front and allow them to take a big step forward in the standings because of it.
Quinton Byfield - Los Angeles Kings
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It feels like we've been waiting a while to see Quinton Byfield emerge in Los Angeles. That time may be at hand.
The No. 2 pick in 2020 has had his development skewed by the pandemic and by injury. But he found a home on a line with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe last season and the Kings thrived with them together. Kopitar led the team in points (74), Kempe led them in goals scored (41) and in 53 games Byfield had 22 points. He also had four points in the six-game loss to Edmonton in the playoffs.
His great advanced stats are due in part to playing with those two for most of his NHL time, but that he stayed with them says the Kings and coach Todd McLellan see growth in his game. His offensive numbers will soon catch up to give the Kings an impossible line to try and stop.
Playing with Kopitar has done wonders for many players throughout the Kings' recent history and Byfield will have no better opportunity than this to show his gaudy numbers in junior hockey can be replicated in the NHL. At 6'5", he's a difficult player to contain in many ways and the Kings will hope his high skill level can lead to him having a Tage Thompson-like evolution in his success.
The tools and the opportunity are there for the taking and playing for a really good Kings team is all anyone could ask for to breakout.
Marco Rossi - Minnesota Wild
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Ever since Marco Rossi was taken ninth in the 2020 NHL Draft, he's had a difficult road to getting to the NHL, but the time for his emergence is at hand.
Rossi had his development severely hampered by contracting COVID-19 in November 2020 in which he developed myocarditis and ultimately feared for his own life, never mind his career. But over the past two seasons, he's gotten his strength back over time and the confidence is back in his game from playing with Iowa in the AHL.
With all that behind him, he's poised to be in the NHL full-time this season and a player with his track record of scoring going back to his junior days makes it easy to believe he'll have a big season.
In two seasons with Iowa, he had 104 points in 116 games (0.9 points per game). Last season he got his first real taste of the NHL and struggled with just one assist in 19 games. One would think that's a reason to hedge your bets as to how he'll do this season, but he never really settled in with consistent linemates and on a team that's fighting for the playoffs, it's tricky to make the most of your time when playing with different players all the time.
But Rossi's talent is there and with the frightening circumstances of the pandemic behind him and continued growth in the AHL, now is the time for him to show what he can do in the NHL. As the Wild showed in the postseason, they could really use an injection of added skill and scoring.
Dylan Guenther - Arizona Coyotes
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Arizona's Dylan Guenther got a long look last season with the Coyotes.
He played virtually the first half of the season in the NHL before departing for the World Junior Championships and returned to the WHL after the tournament.
In 33 games with Arizona, he had six goals and nine assists. That might not jump out at you, but for a 19-year-old on a team that lacked in playmakers and scorers, it makes you take notice because there's more to come now that he's through with his junior career.
Guenther will be a fixture with the Coyotes and the only question is where he'll fit into the lineup. They've added Jason Zucker and Alexander Kerfoot in free agency to join Clayton Keller and Matias Maccelli, but Guenther showed both excellent skating and a very good shot in his time in the NHL.
Fans can sometimes look past what getting that kind of NHL experience can do for a young player because if it goes well, the belief is he was always ready and it's silly to think he wasn't. Whereas if he struggles, it's any number of reasons why, be it the team's overall skill, how he's used or whether or not the coach is any good.
Guenther will have the opportunity to flourish next season in Arizona and coach André Tourigny is an outstanding person to have in charge to handle a cadre of young talent. Expect Guenther to make people take notice of him in October.
William Eklund - San Jose Sharks
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It feels like we've been waiting a long time for William Eklund's arrival in San Jose, but the No. 7 pick in the 2021 draft isn't that far removed from his introduction to NHL fans beyond the prospect hounds.
Truth is that last season was Eklund's first full one in North America and he spent the majority of it with the Sharks' AHL affiliate. He had 41 points in 57 games with the Barracuda before getting eight games with the Sharks. For a 20-year-old new to playing on this side of the Atlantic Ocean right next to the Pacific Ocean, it was a solid first year with a not-so great AHL team.
He was tied for third on the Barracuda in scoring and tied for the team lead in power-play goals with nine. His 0.76 points per game was second best on the team.
There's nothing but opportunity available for him with the Sharks this season. San Jose is still lacking in overall offensive skill, albeit it's improved with the addition of Anthony Duclair. The Sharks' top-six forward unit is screaming for another high-end skilled player and Eklund stands out as the best candidate.
A breakout hinges on opportunity and there's none bigger for Eklund than he'll have this season. Whether he plays next to Tomas Hertl or Logan Couture, you couldn't ask for a better center for him to learn about the NHL. Getting power play time with them and Duclair or Alexander Barabanov should give San Jose fans something to hang their hopes for the future upon.
Jack Quinn - Buffalo Sabres
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There's a sad part to predicting breakout seasons and the sadness that follows injury news is the worst.
Buffalo's Jack Quinn was the guy on the Sabres' circus of offense poised to have a huge season, but that will have to wait until December or January as he recovers from a ruptured Achilles' tendon he sustained in offseason workouts.
Quinn's rookie season was lost in all the goals the Sabres scored last season as well as the fantastic rookie season of Owen Power, but he had 14 goals and 37 points in 75 games--solid numbers for a 21-year-old playing second or third-line minutes.
But Quinn's fancy stats were strong, especially since he was playing with fellow young stars-to-be Dylan Cozens and JJ Peterka. The position he was in with his regular numbers and his advanced numbers were similar to those Cozens had in his previous seasons with the Sabres and Quinn is more of a shooter than Cozens. Keeping in mind that he'd be another year wiser to the NHL and another year stronger in his body points to Quinn having a big season.
And he might still have a big season, but it'll be roughly a half-season worth of action and the Sabres hope a postseason as well. Injuries stink, but if Quinn's projection continues on this path, he'll be Buffalo's best mid-season acquisition.
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