Kirill Marchenko has quickly become one of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ most valuable assets, and his worth to the organization continues to grow as time goes on.
Before we dive into what Marchenko has become though, it’s important to look back at what he used to be.
A Unique Start
When Marchenko broke into the NHL during the 2022-23 season, his stat line created a buzz around him. Even when a player is touted as a “pure goal-scorer”, there’s often not a major discrepancy between their goal and assist numbers in a large sample size. It does happen occasionally, especially in smaller sample sizes.
There are a few examples of this type of imbalance so far this season, Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Cole Caulfield of the Montreal Canadiens. Point currently has a stat line of 16 goals and nine assists; it was 16 goals and five assists until a four-assist game against the San Jose Sharks. Meanwhile, Caufield’s is slightly more balanced, but not by much, at 16 goals and seven assists. The most extreme example would be Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers, who has scored 10 times yet just recorded his first assist on Dec. 6. All three have played 26 games or less, and given their historical performances they’ll find a balance at some point.
When a rookie breaks into the league in that fashion though, it makes waves in a different way. During Marchenko’s rookie season, he scored 21 goals yet only recorded a total of four assists in 59 games. He quickly showed his goal-scoring talent, scoring his first NHL goal in his fourth game against the Los Angeles Kings in a 6-5 Blue Jackets win.
Historically, there have been some players with a similar start but the majority of them were in the early days of the league. Joe Malone, during the 1917-18 season, for example, had 44 goals and four assists in 20 games, however, the rules of the game were very different at that point, and as a result, it wasn’t overly uncommon for assist numbers to be low. The most similar season to Marchenko’s rookie season in recent memory would be Denis Gurianov with the Dallas Stars during 2019-20 when he had 20 goals and nine assists, but it still wasn’t as mind-blowing as Marchenko’s start.
New-Found Parity
Things changed a bit in Marchenko’s sophomore season. While he was still more prominent as a goal-scorer, he allowed his playmaking ability to shine through a bit. He reached the 20-goal plateau for the second time in a row, setting a career-high of 23. This time around though, he assisted on 19 goals as well.
So far in the 2024-25 season, Marchenko has continued down that same path. He’s still leading the Blue Jackets in goals with 10, but he’s second on the team in assists as well. Trailing only Zach Werenski, the 24-year-old forward currently has 15 helpers, narrowly putting him ahead of Sean Monahan and Cole Sillinger who have 14 each.
Despite Marchenko’s increased playmaking, he’s still shooting at the same rate. He’s averaging 2.4 shots per game, which equals his performance from last season. During his rookie campaign, that number was slightly lower at 2.2 shots per game. His shooting percentage is almost identical to his rookie season though, as he’s currently at 15.9% compared to 16% in 2022-23. He’s finding ways to improve his game, without sacrificing what’s made him successful in the past.
The Blue Jackets also aren’t giving up many goals, or chances for that matter, when Marchenko is on the ice. Per Natural Stat Trick, they’ve scored 28 times with him on the ice while only conceding 13 goals to the opposition. Marchenko has spent the majority of the season so far alongside Sean Monahan and Yegor Chinakhov. In the 12 games they played together, they scored eight goals and allowed only three. They also created 59 scoring chances, while only giving up 33. They drove offense considerably and kept their opponents away from the defensive zone.
Related: Blue Jackets’ Werenski Catapulting Into Norris Trophy Discussion
Marchenko is playing more minutes than ever for the Blue Jackets and he’s playing better than ever as well. The once pure goal-scorer has turned into a complete player who is on the verge of stardom in the NHL. As the team continues to improve, he’ll quickly develop into a household name around the league if he can keep up his current development path. In the meantime, he’ll have to settle for becoming one of the organization’s most important, and complete, players.
