Welcome to Quadrelli’s Who’s Hot and Who’s Not — a column in which David Quadrelli will break down who’s trending in the right direction around the league and who’s on the downswing.
Who’s Hot
Three games ago, Bryan Rust had two goals and seven assists on the year.
At the time of this writing, he’s got nine goals and 11 assists.
Let’s break this absolute heater down.
After missing the entire month of December, Rust is playing on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ top line featuring Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel, and has been on fire ever since returning.
In his return to the Penguins’ lineup on January 2, Rust scored a hat trick and added two assists in the process.
In his next two games, Rust turned in two three-point performances in which he tallied two goals and one assist in each game.
That means over the past three games, Rust has seven goals and four assists — good for 11 points.
Just two of these seven goals have come on the power play, which makes Rust’s heater even more impressive and worth keeping an eye on going forward.
Zach Fucale
Zach Fucale has appeared in only three games this season — and only three games in his NHL career.
Through the first 138 minutes of his NHL career, the 26-year-old Fucale stopped every shot he faced.
Saturday night against the Minnesota Wild saw Mats Zuccarello end Fucale’s record-setting career-opening shutout sequence.
Fucale has played well and started his career with a bang, but he needs to play more games if he wants to make his mark on the NHL for more than just a neat and obscure stat.
Jack Hughes
It’s safe to say Jack Hughes has arrived. In his last six games, Hughes has four goals and eight assists, and he has scored some timely goals for the Devils.
Nine of Hughes’ 12 points over this stretch have come at even strength, and he’s taken 26 shots on goal.
With 20 points in 19 games this season, the first overall pick of the 2019 draft is playing with the confidence that the Devils knew he possessed when they signed him to a long-term contract extension earlier this season.
Honorable mentions: Jonathan Huberdeau and Mikko Rantanen
Who’s Not
Jonathan Toews
It’s been an up-and-down season for Jonathan Toews, but for the most part, it’s been a disappointment.
Toews is on pace to record fewer than 20 goals for the first time in his career, and has just 11 assists through 35 games played this season.
It’s hard to fill out a “Who’s Not” section when teams — especially those north of the border — have had their games postponed recently and have yet to return to action with any sort of regularity, but Chicago has already played five games since January 1.
In that stretch of time, Toews has a goal and an assist.
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