NHL Three Stars: Vancouver’s Demko, Los Angeles’ Moore and Tampa Bay’s Point Turn Up the Heat

It’s time for the latest THN.com’s Three Stars of the Week file. Here, we’ve looked at the results of the past seven days in the NHL and

picked the three NHLers with the best impact on their team’s play. Let’s get to it:

3. THATCHER DEMKO, VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Demko was the best goalie of the week, with a 2-1-0 record, .920 save percentage, and a 2.01 goals-against average. He now has a

record of 10-5-0 this season, as well as a sparkling .925 SP and 2.18 G.A.A.. – and if those individual numbers hold up, they would be

the best of his NHL career. They’re also an improvement on Demko’s career average of a .911 SP and 2.84 G.A.A. The 27-year-old

currently carries a salary cap hit of $5-million per season through the 2025-26 campaign, and that’s money extremely well-spent by

the Canucks. Backup Casey DeSmith isn’t nearly as efficient as Demko is, so Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet will continue leaning on

Demko as much as possible as his team attempts to stay near the top of the Pacific Division. But Demko certainly is looking up to the

challenge, and as he plays behind a Canucks defensive group that’s hardly a high-end shutdown group, Demko is doing more than his

share of the heavy lifting. 2.

TREVOR MOORE, LOS ANGELES KINGS

The L.A. Kings continued their hot streak this week, and  leading the way for them was Moore, who generated four goals and six points

in three games. Moore has been playing on L.A.’s second

line and averaging 16:45, and his success this week gives him a team-best 11 goals and 19 points in 19 games this season. He’s got more

goals this year than the 10 goals he scored for the Kings in 59 games in 2022-23, and he’s now on pace to easily demolish his career-

best total of 17 goals and 48 points, both set in 2021-22. At 28 years old, Moore is in his prime, and he’s in the first year of a five-year

contract extension that pays him an annual average salary of $4.2 million. Kings GM Rob Blake has, relatively quietly, assembled a

solid roster, and Moore is a major component of it. Moore isn’t the biggest in terms of physical stature, but he’s creative, slippery and

slick, and even if he does cool off a little in the coming weeks, he’s still going to be dangerous with the puck, and a credit to the Kings’

overall attack.

1. BRAYDEN POINT, TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

Along with Moore, Predators forward Filip Forsberg and Bruins forward Charlie Coyle all finished tied for the league lead in scoring

this week; each of them had four goals, but unlike Coyle and

Forsberg, who’d played in four games this week, Moore and Point amassed that total in only three games – and Point was a threat at

even strength (where he had two goals) and on the power play (where he had his two other goals). Point also had a game-winning goal

this week, and he now has 18 assists and 29 points in 21 games this season. It’ll be rather difficult for Point to match his 51-goal

production from last season, but at this pace, he’s almost certainly going to surpass his current career-best of 51 assists and 95 points.

The 27-year-old is tied with star winger Nikita Kucherov and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy as the most-highly-paid Lightning player at

$9.5 million per season, but he’s Tampa Bay’s best center, and he’s had a terrific week while averaging just 20:17 of ice time per game.

The Bolts have a number of elite forwards, but few, if any, are more dynamic than Point.