Six under-the-radar breakout stars of the 2022-23 NHL season

Josh Morrissey, Winnipeg Jets

Josh Morrissey, unlike Maccelli, has been around the National Hockey League for a pretty long time. But he’s never looked quite this good since making the jump to the big league with the Jets at the end of the 2015–16 season.

Entering the 2022–23 campaign, Morrissey had never scored more than 37 points over a full season. Well, the 27-year-old is already up to 42 in just 36 games with these Jets and is two assists away from having more helpers this year than he’d ever had points in any previous season.

Ever since Dustin Byfuglien’s abrupt departure from the NHL at the end of the 2018–19 season, the Jets had effectively been a team without a No. 1 defenceman. Not anymore. Sure, Morrissey is absolutely riding a significant PDO bender to start the year, but he’s logged a ton of difficult minutes and the Jets have fared reasonably well in them. He’s not the shutdown guy Byfuglien was, but Morrissey’s stellar play in the offensive end has been a huge part of the Jets’ terrific 22–13–1 start to the year.

Linus Ullmark, Boston Bruins

This list is almost divided into two sub-sections: the guys who have been pretty solid for years but are just now elevating into greatness, and the guys who truly came out of nowhere. Linus Ullmark belongs in that first category.

Entering the season, it looked like the Bruins might go with a platoon arrangement with Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman in goal. Not so fast. Three months later, Ullmark has played nearly twice as many games as his sophomore backup and is besting him by 36 points in the save percentage column. Swayman hasn’t even been that bad — he’s 7–3–2 with a .902 in 13 games — but Ullmark has been out of this world.

Everyone knows how good the Bruins have been this year, but even the best teams can be sunk by bad goaltending. That certainly isn’t the case in Boston. After being a reliable .915 guy in Buffalo and Boston for a solid half-decade, Ullmark has gone supernova this year with a 20–1–1 record, a .938 save percentage, and (per Moneypuck) a league-leading 20.4 goals saved above expected in 24 appearances.

At 29, Ullmark is the oldest player on this list. He’s also one of the most expensive, with his $5 million cap hit extending through 2025. Right now, he looks like an incredible bargain — and the runaway leader in the Vezina Trophy race.

Karel Vejmelka, Arizona Coyotes

The Coyotes might be the NHL’s most under-the-radar team in terms of the product they put on the ice (not so for the happenings off it), so it’s fitting they have two players on this list. Naturally, the second is the goaltender who has kept them competitive — perhaps too competitive, given the bigger picture — all season long.

Karel Vejmelka also deserves Vezina consideration for his performance in Arizona this season. Going off Moneypuck’s rankings, he’s third among all NHL netminders (behind only Ullmark and Ilya Sorokin) with 18.3 goals saved above expected. Playing behind one of the thinnest teams in the league, Vejmelka has an 11–9–4 record and a .910 save percentage in 25 games this season. He’s defeated the likes of Boston, Toronto (twice), Los Angeles, Florida (twice), and Carolina along the way, helping the Coyotes put together one of the best home records (7–3–2) in the league.

When the Coyotes signed Vejmelka to a three-year contract extension back in March, it looked like he’d be the perfect goaltender for a tanking club: good enough to steal the odd game and keep the others competitive while ultimately losing the majority of the time. That’s what he was as a rookie with the Coyotes in 2021–22. But the 26-year-old from Trebic, Czechia looks like a legitimate starter-quality goaltender this year — and, with his uber-cheap $2.725 million cap hit through 2025, he could be a tantalizing trade target for many teams.

 Filip Hronek, Detroit Red Wings

It’s always been a bit difficult to get a good read on Filip Hronek. Like Morrissey, he’s been around for a bit (although probably not as long as you think — this is only his fifth NHL season). And while he’s shown signs, he’s never really looked like a bona fide top-pairing defenceman … until now.

Hronek, 25, has been lights-out for the Red Wings this season. He’s scoring more than ever and is actually on pace to nearly double his previous career-high mark in points. At the very least, a 50-point season certainly seems to be in the cards if he can remain healthy.

What’s been particularly impressive is the improvement Hronek has displayed in the defensive zone this year. No longer do the Red Wings bleed chances whenever he’s on the ice — in fact, it’s been the opposite. Detroit has fared better in its own zone with Hronek on the ice than with any other defender this season, and that’s even accounting for the deleterious effect Ben Chairot has had on Moritz Seider.

He’s still prone as ever to the odd gaffe (he had more than a few of them against the Buffalo Sabres two nights ago), but Hronek’s turnaround this year has been something to behold. Having a 1–2 punch of Seider and Hronek on the back sounds pretty good.

Andrei Kuzmenko, Vancouver Canucks

There hasn’t been any Calder Trophy chatter around Andrei Kuzmenko for a pretty good reason: he’s too old to win. But if the “Sergei Makarov Rule” didn’t exist, you could safely bet your behind Kuzmenko would be the runaway favorite.

It’s not often you see somebody enter the NHL and play his first season as a pending unrestricted free agent, but that’s exactly the case with Kuzmenko. The 26-year-old winger has made hay on a line with Elias Pettersson, recording 15 goals and 32 points in his first 34 NHL games — and giving his agent the excuse to post moneybag emojis on Twitter after he scores.

It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle with a team on which fellow UFA-to-be Bo Horvat has 26 goals in 35 games and J.T. Miller is publicly feuding with his own third-string goaltender, but Kuzmenko deserves bucketloads of praise for his performance this season. He’s a good skater with fantastic offensive instincts and a lethal shot. Kuzmenko and Pettersson could be a dynamic duo for years to come.