- Nathan MacKinnon wins his first Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy with a career-high 53 goals.
- Cole Caufield finishes runner-up at 51, Connor McDavid third at 48.
- Read below for how MacKinnon’s 53-goal season stacks up against Sakic, Rantanen, and Hejduk.
Nathan MacKinnon is your 2025-26 Rocket Richard Trophy winner. The Avalanche star wrapped the regular season with 53 goals, a new career high and enough to hold off Montreal’s Cole Caufield by two.
MacKinnon locked it up Tuesday in Calgary with an empty-netter at 19:43 of the third period for his 53rd of the year. Colorado rested him for Thursday’s finale against the Kraken, and nobody in the league could close the gap. You can read the full game recap from that Calgary win here.
Caufield pushed the race into the final week. He became the first Canadien to hit 50 goals since 1990 earlier this month and stayed within striking distance, but Montreal’s 82-game season ended with him stuck at 51. Connor McDavid finished third at 48.
This is the second 50-goal season of MacKinnon’s career. He joins Hall of Famers Joe Sakic and Michel Goulet as the only players in Quebec/Colorado franchise history to reach the mark more than once.
His 53 goals also slot in as the third-best single-season total since the team moved to Denver. Mikko Rantanen holds the franchise record at 55 from 2022-23, and Sakic scored 54 in 2000-01.
Milan Hejduk is the only other Avalanche player to claim the award, after his 50-goal year in 2002-03. MacKinnon is the first to do it in Denver in more than two decades.
There is more hardware in play. MacKinnon sits near the top of the Hart Trophy conversation, chasing his second MVP in three seasons. Teammates Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood will share the William Jennings after Colorado allowed the fewest goals in the league, part of a Presidents’ Trophy campaign that now turns toward the playoffs.
