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The last time the NHLPA asked its players for the name of the NHL’s most underrated player, during the 2022-23 season, Aleksander Barkov ran away with the category. He captured nearly 23 percent of the vote, while no one else got to five percent.
What a difference two years makes. Barkov is now a Stanley Cup champion with back-to-back appearances in the final. Before that, the argument was that he was hidden away, playing on a Florida Panthers team that rarely saw the national spotlight.
The same can be said for players on Canada’s small-market Winnipeg Jets. They don’t get much airtime on U.S. national broadcasts on ESPN and TNT and can even fly under the radar in their homeland — despite being the nation’s best regular-season team in 2023-24 and getting off to a historically great 14-1-0 start this year.
Related: The Winnipeg Jets Are Off To The Best Start Ever, But Will It Actually Matter?
There’s an argument to be made that to be truly underrated, a player wouldn’t even get votes from his peers. And even though he was on his way to his fifth 30-goal season in his seven-year career in 2022-23, Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets was not mentioned in the top six.
After Connor’s three-point night against the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 30, first-year Jets coach Scott Arniel had high praise.
“He’s an elite player in this league,” Arniel told the media. “We like to keep him as our little hidden secret, but I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore.”
This year, Connor has gotten some attention for his nine goals and 19 points, which are both tied for the Jets team lead. He earned the NHL’s second star honors for October thanks to his season-opening point streak, which reached 12 games.
Kyle Connor's season-opening point streak is now at a dozen games! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/OWm6nvbWlB
— NHL (@NHL) November 3, 2024
Against Detroit on Oct. 30, Connor tallied his third game-winning goal of the year and his 500th career point in just his 541st NHL game. That made him the second-fastest player in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history to get to that milestone, behind only Ilya Kovalchuk (500 games).
Connor has been held off the scoresheet for Winnipeg’s last three games. But a little regression is understandable. As long as the team is winning, it’s not a problem.
Look at Connor’s NHL Edge stats for the 2024-25 season, and you’ll see that his skating numbers are strong in distance and speed bursts. While he isn’t the hardest shooter in the NHL, he doesn’t need to be in the perfect spot to beat a goalie.
Only two of his nine goals this season have come from the high-danger area right in front of the net. Five were scored from what NHL Edge calls mid-range distances, and Connor has scored twice on four shots from near the left boards — an area that the tracking software treats as a non-scoring zone.
Selected 17th overall by the Jets from the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms in 2015, the native of Shelby Township, Mich., is now the sixth member of his esteemed draft class to crack 500 points. His 252 goals rank him fourth in that group, behind only Connor McDavid, Mikko Rantanen and Sebastian Aho.
Connor spent one season at the University of Michigan before turning pro. Even though he led all rookies with 31 goals in his official rookie season in 2017-18, he didn’t get a single first-place vote for the Calder Trophy. He finished fourth overall in the voting behind Mat Barzal, Brock Boeser and Clayton Keller.
From Day 1, Connor has been a model of consistency, eclipsing 30 goals every year except for the 56-game 2020-21 season, when his 26 goals would have projected to 38 over an 82-game campaign.
His best year was his 47-goal, 93-point effort in 2021-22. But the season was a mess: Paul Maurice resigned in December of 2021, and the Jets missed the playoffs by eight points.
Even without counting this year’s hot start, Connor’s numbers since the fall of 2019 are incredible. His 132 even-strength goals are fourth-best in the league, behind only Matthews, Pastrnak and McDavid. His 176 total goals and 1,216 shots both rank him eighth overall. And he had 39 game-winning goals during those five seasons, which ranked sixth.
Connor should be a shoo-in for Team USA at next February’s 4 Nations Face-Off. But while his Jets teammate Connor Hellebuyck looks to have the inside track on starting goaltending duties, the left winger has been a bit of an afterthought for prognosticators of the Americans’ admittedly stacked forward corps.
U.S. GM Bill Guerin has talked about trying to fill roles in his lineup rather than prioritizing familiarity and established pairs. But Connor’s resume is certainly impressive enough to earn one of eight spots on the wings.
If the Americans live up to their early billing as favorites for the tournament, Connor could garner more attention in 10 days than he’s had in his entire NHL career so far — especially as the hype builds toward the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Like Barkov before him, the stage is set for Connor to erase that ‘underrated’ tag and step out of his identity as the Jets’ ‘hidden secret.’ Three months from now, he could start being recognized and appreciated as one of the NHL’s most exciting scoring stars.
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Related: Should Red Wings Star Patrick Kane Be On Team USA At The 4 Nations Face-Off?
News Summary:
- Underrated NHL Star Kyle Connor Could Go From Jets' 'Hidden Secret' To Team USA Standout
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