A weekly gauge of the players who are controlling substantial buzz around the league. When a player is included on this list it may not be a good thing -- it means that they are capturing a large amount of the hockey world's attention.

While the Avalanche won their first title in more than 20 years back in 2022 under the leadership of MacKinnon, the forward wasn't sure about his future in Denver in the mid-2010s because of the underwhelming start to his career. So much so, in fact, that "Nate Dogg" went as far as believing a trade was in the franchise's consideration.