NHL: Three Rookies who have been great so far this season
By Jim Lynch
The NHL is a young players league at this point. So many young stars are coming into the league quicker than ever and making an instant impact, which makes looking at some of the best rookies around that much more interesting for today’s discussion.
The NHL has over 50 rookies in the league right now. There are a lot of big names in that group, like Wyatt Johnson in Dallas or Dylan Guenterh in Arizona, but only three are really being considered the best of the best at this point.
NHL: Three Rookies who have been great so far this season
3. Shane Pinto (OTT)
I do need to admit, this spot really did belong to Shane Pinto’s teammate Jake Sanderson while I was planning this article. I kept going back and forth between Pinto and Sanderson, as both have been great for different reasons.
Sanderson has stepped into the blueline very well in Ottawa, making a big impact playing over 18 minutes a night. Pinto, on the other hand, leads all rookies in goals with six.
While he is third on our list, the NHL recently named Pinto the rookie of the month.
2. Logan Thompson (VGK)
Logan Thompson has been remarkable in net for the Vegas Golden Knights to start the 2022-23 NHL season. Missing Robin Lehner, this team was supposed to suffer through bad goaltending, yet Thompson and Adin Hill have elevated things in Vegas.
Thompson has won four of the six games he has started going 4-2-0 in the net. The remarkable thing as he has had two shutouts and has a goals-against average of 1.69 this season and a save percentage of .943. The Golden Knights are lucky to have Thompson in the net.
1. Matty Beniers (SEA)
Finally, we get to our top spot. Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken has been the rookie of the month, in my opinion. Beniers was drafted second overall in 2021, the first-ever draft pick made by Seattle in the history of the franchise. So far in his first year in the league, Beniers is playing over 17 minutes a night and has four goals and four assists on the year. He has been a great addition to this team and has strong statistics to back up his play. Beniers has 21 shots in his first ten games, so getting him to shoot the puck more is the only thing I would change at this time.
It will be interesting to see which rookie takes the top spot at the end of November!