NHL Situational Scoring: Canadiens' Cole Caufield Scored The Most Valuable Points This Year

NHL Situational Scoring: Top 25 Of 2025-26 Situational Scoring tracks the points that matter the most. Goals and assists are assigned a value depending on the situation and added up in the total (SS points). Scroll to the right for more numbers.

As always, there are a couple of things to note, the most important being that goals are weighted more heavily than assists, with goals worth one point and assists worth half a point.

In this system, goals can be worth more than one point and assists worth more than a half a point.

For example, the first goal of a game is automatically worth two points, one for being the first goal of the game and one for putting that player's team ahead in a game. An overtime goal is worth three: one for putting the team ahead, one for being the game-winner and one for the overtime goal. If that is the only goal in a 1-0 game, it's worth four.

It can all be a little confusing, so here's a glossary:

FIRST: When a player scores the first goal of the game.

AHEAD: Any goal that puts a team ahead at any point in the game, including overtime.

TIED: Any goal that pulls a team into a tie at any point in the game.

COMEBACK: A goal that is scored when a team is trailing by two goals or more and is part of a series of goals that eventually ties the game, regardless of the ultimate outcome of the game.

WINNER: A game-winning goal, but not by the NHL's definition. The game-winner in this category is the goal that puts a team ahead in a game to stay. So in other words, you could have a 7-6 game and maybe the first goal of the game was the game-winner.

OT: Overtime goal.

SO: Only shootout game-winning goals are counted in this category.

NHL: Where the player stands in the actual NHL scoring race.

Take a look at the list, watch the video column above for more, and let us know your thoughts.

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