The NHL’s Rocket Richard Trophy is awarded every year to the league’s prime purpose scorer.
In 1999, the Canadiens donated the trophy to the league in honor of their Corridor of Famer Maurice “Rocket” Richard, who performed for Montreal from 1942 to 1960.
The newest recipient of the award was Oilers ahead Leon Draisaitl, who led the league in scoring final season with 52 targets in solely 71 video games.
Forward of the beginning of the 2025-26 common season, let’s check out the preseason favorites for the Richard Trophy as of September 2.
Richard Trophy Odds
Rank | Participant | Staff | Odds |
1 | Auston Matthews | Maple Leafs | 325 |
2 | Leon Draisaitl | Oilers | 340 |
3 | Kirill Kaprizov | Wild | 550 |
4 | David Pastrnak | Bruins | 1300 |
5 | William Nylander | Maple Leafs | 1900 |
6 | Nathan MacKinnon | Avalanche | 2000 |
7 | Connor McDavid | Oilers | 2200 |
8 | Tage Thompson | Sabres | 2200 |
Who’s Favored to Win the Rocket Richard Trophy?
Toronto heart Auston Matthews is at the moment a +325 favourite to win the Richard Trophy, holding a slim lead over Draisaitl.
Matthews is considered one of solely two gamers in NHL historical past to have received the Richard Trophy 3 times, the opposite being Capitals’ ahead Alexander Ovechkin.
He most lately received the award within the 2023-24 season after scoring 69 targets in 82 video games performed. This previous season, Matthews completed exterior of the highest ten in purpose scoring with solely 33 targets scored in 67 video games, the fewest purpose whole in his profession.
Matthews struggled with an undisclosed damage all through the common season and into the playoffs, limiting his time on the ice.
This upcoming season must be a bounce-back season with Matthews presumably recovered from damage. It additionally presents a chance for Matthews to be within the Richard dialog as soon as once more.
Regardless of a hopefully more healthy season benefiting Matthews this 12 months, he additionally has extra scoring alternatives within the absence of Mitch Marner, who signed with the Golden Knights within the offseason.
It’s not like sharing the ice with Marner was hurting his purpose scoring a lot earlier than, however it may well solely assist Matthews’ scoring whole now that he’s the unquestionable primary scoring risk.
This differs from the reigning champion Draisaitl, who loses some goal-scoring alternatives by having Connor McDavid as his teammate. Whereas Matthews nonetheless has some gifted teammates, the dropoff from the primary scoring choice to quantity two is steeper than for Draisaitl.
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