NHL Announces 2025-26 First All-Star Team
Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid headline the NHL's 2025-26 First All-Star Team, joined by Jason Robertson, Cale Makar, Zach Werenski and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The NHL announced its 2025-26 All-Star Teams on June 12 and the First Team reads like a who's who of the best players the league has produced over the last decade, with four trophy winners from this season all making the cut alongside two players who were already on last year's First Team.
Additionally, Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning leads the group after winning the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, finishing the regular season with 44 goals and 86 assists for 130 points across 76 games and earning his fifth First Team berth at right wing, which is the most of any active player and places him fifth all-time at the position behind Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, Jaromir Jagr and Guy Lafleur.
Connor McDavid put up 48 goals and 90 assists for 138 points across 82 games to earn his sixth First Team berth at centre, which ties him with Jean Beliveau, Phil Esposito and Stan Mikita for second all-time at the position behind only Wayne Gretzky who won First Team honours eight times.
Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender and earned his third First Team nod with a 2.31 goals against average and .912 save percentage across 58 games, while Zach Werenski of Columbus won the Norris Trophy as best defenceman with 22 goals and 59 assists for 81 points in 75 games, earning back-to-back First Team selections.
Moreover, Cale Makar posted 20 goals and 59 assists for his fourth First Team appearance, and Jason Robertson of Dallas rounded out the group with 45 goals and 51 assists across 82 games for his second First Team selection.
On the Second Team, Cole Caufield of Montreal earned his first All-Star nod after scoring 51 goals, while Nathan MacKinnon posted 53 goals and 74 assists for 127 points, with Evan Bouchard, Rasmus Dahlin, David Pastrnak and Logan Thompson completing the group.
Sportscape feels that Kucherov winning the Hart and landing on the First All-Star Team in the same season while his Lightning are still alive in the Stanley Cup Final is the kind of individual campaign that comes along very rarely, and the fact that McDavid is right there alongside him on the same First Team despite finishing second in the Hart voting shows that the gap between the two best players in the world right now is genuinely as small as the stats suggest.
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