What is a point in hockey?

The point is one of the most misunderstood concepts in hockey for casual fans. Often, it gets confused with points in, say, the NFL or even the NBA. However, they confuse the idea with goals, which is what NHL teams need the most. After all, you don't win a hockey game by having more points than the other team (well, technically, you do. But it's referred to as scoring goals).

The Vegas Golden Knights are no strangers to this. They're regular point producers, with names like Jack Eichel and William Karlsson coming to the forefront. That also included Jonathan Marchessault, who's off to Nashville for a Honky Tonk good time and more point production. He'll be sorely missed along with his production for the Golden Knights.

But let's help out those not familiar with the concept. By diving into the topic further, fans can better understand the idea and how it helps evaluate players offensively. What is a point? How is it earned? These are questions fans shall explore in this piece to help grow their hockey knowledge and make them further acquainted with the game.

The definition of a point (and which Vegas Golden Knights star has the most in franchise history)

A point is a stat earned by an NHL (or hockey) player through two means. One is by scoring a goal, which is done by shooting the puck past the goaltender. The other is passing to the pending goal-scorer who shoots said puck into the net. The all-time leader in points for the league is Wayne Gretzky with 2,857.

On the Vegas Golden Knights front, that record belongs to Jonathan Marchessault with 417. Last season, the "Original Misfit" scored 42 goals, falling one short of the franchise record (William Karlsson in 2017-18 with 43). Now, he's off to Nashville to break more records, where he'll pair up with Steven Stamkos. Your contributions will be sorely missed, Mr. Marchessault.

The point is the most common way of measuring an offensive player's success. Often, people see whether that player is a goal scorer or a distributor. Whatever the case, every team must have a good mixture of both. That's how the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2022-23, for they had deep lines on every unit. Next season and beyond, Vegas hopes to gain more points and win another Stanley Cup. If that's the case, they'll master the concept of scoring once again.