The NHL Needs a Most Improved Player Award

With the NHL doling out all of its major awards, we’ve seen some of the yearly discussion about potentially adding new ones.

One such idea that has always stood out as having quite a bit of potential is a “Most Improved Player” award. This is given out in the National Basketball Association, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the Atlanta Hawks being the most recent winner.

So who would be the winners of this award? We went back and looked at the last five years to see who we think would take home the hardware. The players were chosen based on a combination of stats, analysis of new roles, and perceptions of the players before and after these breakout campaigns.

2025-26: Darren Raddysh

There are definitely plenty of candidates for this award in the 2025-26 season. While the Most Improved Player award tends not to go to second-season players, Macklin Celebrini’s meteoric rise certainly has to be taken into account, and he would likely be a finalist.

With that said, there are few more fitting choices for the award over the years than Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh. He went undrafted but eventually joined his brother with the Lightning in 2021. While Taylor Raddysh was traded soon as part of the package for Brandon Hagel, Darren got the chance to become a mainstay in the Lightning lineup in 2023 and never looked back.

For a few years, Raddysh was a role-player for the Lightning. He often manned the second unit of the power play, and his size made him a good net-front presence. This past season was a bit different, though, with his career-high point total jumping from 37 to 70. Raddysh also broke the Lightning record for most goals in a season by a defenseman, with 22. A pretty impressive feat to do for a franchise that has had defenders like Victor Hedman and Dan Boyle clapping shots from the blue line.

Raddysh is a pending unrestricted free agent, and we will see whether teams believe in his surprise surge at age 30 or think it was a mirage propped up by coaching and Nikita Kucherov.

2024-25: Dylan Holloway

Sometimes, a little change of scenery is all that is needed to become a star. The Edmonton Oilers 2020 first-round pick was offer-sheeted by the St. Louis Blues in a bombshell move alongside teammate Philip Broberg.

The payoff for the Blues was immediate. Holloway quickly began climbing their lineup as he constantly kept proving himself to be a real factor in games. Across 89 games with the Oilers, Holloway scored nine goals and tallied 18 points. In his first season with the Blues, he put up 26 goals and 63 points in 77 games. Holloway’s dominance was a key reason why the Blues were able to battle their way into the last wild-card spot, though he didn’t suit up in the postseason due to injury.

Ironically, Broberg probably would’ve gotten some down-ballot votes this season had this award existed. He went from sheltered, bottom-pairing minutes to averaging 20 minutes a night, while showing himself to be more defensively responsible and offensively gifted than previously assumed.

2023-24: Sam Reinhart

There’s no doubt that Sam Reinhart was already a great player during his time in Buffalo with the Sabres. Upon arrival in Florida two seasons prior, he levelled up, becoming a point-per-game player (and more) for the first time in his career. It still took a couple of seasons before he looked like a complete superstar.

In 2023-24, Reinhart scored 57 goals, good for second behind a historic near-70-goal campaign from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews. He also climbed the Frank J. Selke Trophy voting, finishing fourth. He had always been a strong defensive forward, but his larger role within the Panthers’ offense forced hockey writers to acknowledge how strong he had become in his own zone.

It’s important to note that Reinhart had a huge jump in shooting percentage from 2022-23 to 2023-24. To this day, the 24.5% he put up that season is the highest of his career. However, you could also look at the previous season’s mark being shockingly low by Reinhart’s standards. His finishing ability took a spike upwards, and he also took more shots in 2023-24 than in any season of his career.

Evan Bouchard and Zach Hyman of the Oilers are also due major props, as both had what were, at the time, career seasons. J.T. Miller also stepped up big for the Vancouver Canucks that season, eclipsing the 100-point mark for the first (and only) time.

2022-23: Linus Ullmark

This was a bit of a difficult season to make a selection for, as there were plenty of candidates. Erik Karlsson must be given major props for turning his career around, as he went from somewhat of a disappointment in San Jose to winning his third Norris Trophy, setting career highs in goals and points in the process. 

Linus Ullmark was a good goalie entering 2022-23, and the .917 save percentage (SV%) he put up each of the previous two campaigns was evidence of this. In his second season with the Boston Bruins, he became the backbone of their record-breaking season, posting an unbelievable 40-6-1 record. This earned him the Vezina Trophy, an award he was a major dark horse for entering the season.

You can point to the stacked Bruins squad as being the source of his success, but you need to be elite to put up a .938 SV%. According to MoneyPuck, Ullmark was also the second-best goalie in terms of goals saved above expected in 2022-23, and he had the disadvantage of not starting as many games as the rest of the top five.

2021-22: Tage Thompson

If we needed a namesake for this award, Tage Thompson would probably be in the running. He joined Buffalo from St. Louis as part of the 2018 Ryan O’Reilly trade. After O’Reilly had a career season in 2018-19, many thought the trade was another failure for the Sabres. It turns out, fans just needed a little bit of patience.

The Sabres’ 6-foot-7 center saw his production explode in 2021-22, rising the ranks to nearly become a 40-goal-scorer, a mark he reached three times following this season. This was especially impressive as his previous career high in goals was eight. His 2021-22 goal total was higher than his career point total entering the season. It’s rare to see this much of an improvement for a player over the course of one season, with Holloway being the closest comparable. Holloway was younger, though, and had just joined a new organization.

The impressive part is that he probably has a solid chance of winning the award next season, too. While we went with his former teammate Ullmark, Thompson’s goal and point totals rose significantly in 2022-23, culminating in 47 goals and 94 points.

Will We See This Award?

It’s somewhat difficult to see the NHL adding a new award to the current collection, especially considering the last new award to be added for players was the Mark Messier Leadership Award in the 2006-07 season. Still, a Most Improved Player award would serve as an excellent way to celebrate the players who are on their way to becoming superstars.