Look, we don’t want to call someone as dominant as Kucherov an underdog.
The 25-year-old that hails from Maykop, Russia came out of the KHL in the 2012-2013 season and joined the QMJHL, where he put up 63 points in just 33 games played with the Quebec Remparts and the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
So yeah, it wouldn’t really be fair to call him an underdog, but he was amid some pretty elite company in the 2011 draft class.
2011 was the year that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins went first overall, and names like Gabriel Landeskog, Rickard Rakell, Mark Scheifele, and Adam Larsson were all called upon in the first round.
It wasn’t until the 28th pick of the second round, 58th overall, that Kucherov heard his name called.
Since then, though, the elusive winger has made massive noise in the league, and is now the first player from his draft class to hit the impressive 400-point mark in 406 games played.
The closest people from the 2011 draft class to reaching the 400-mark are Gabriel Landeskog at 386, then Johnny Gaudreau, who went in the fourth round, and Nugent-Hopkins, who both have 349 career points.
When he came into the league in 2013, he put up 18 points, before he had a breakout season the following year, where he more than tripled that with 65.
Kucherov seems to be on an absolute tear this year, and is leading the scoring race with a 7-point lead on the nearest player to him.
With 69 points in just 41 games played, the Russian winger is on-pace to soar past his already impressive 100 point season last year, with 138.
Kucherov doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, and we imagine that he’ll continue to smash records for the duration of the season.
