Dylan Guenther has scored five goals for the Utah Hockey Club through the first week of the NHL season. Even after being held scoreless on Monday against the New Jersey Devils, Guenther is still the NHL's leading goal scorer, and before the game on Monday, it was announced that Guenther was voted the NHL's player of the week.
Each week, the NHL highlights the top three performers across the league, using three stars, similar to how three stars are awarded to players after each game. Instead, this league-wide award covers every game played in a specific week.
Last year, the Arizona Coyotes, now Utah Hockey Club, only had one player voted for this award throughout the year: Connor Ingram. This week, in early December 2023, "Ingram stopped 89 of the 94 shots he faced, going 3-0-0 with a 1.63 goals-against average and .947 save percentage to help the Coyotes (12-9-2, 26 points) move into the first Wild Card position in the Western Conference" (via NHL.com), which earned him the first star of the week.
Guenther has become the second player on this roster in the last two years to be recognized as the NHL's Player of the Week. While this is far from taking home a season-long award, it has to be a great confidence booster for Guenther, who came into this season with huge expectations.
Utah Hockey Club forward Dylan Guenther voted NHL's Player of the Week
Dylan Guenther opened the season by scoring two goals against the Chicago Blackhawks; he would then add two more in Utah's first game on the road against the Islanders and would score the fifth in Utah's third game against the Rangers before being held scoreless for the first time against the Devils.
The week's second star was Connor Hellebuyuck, who finished the week going 3-0 for the Winnipeg Jets. He shut out the Edmonton Oilers and ended the week with a .976 save percentage and a 0.66 goals-against average. This is about as good of a week that a goaltender can have and would have earned him the top sport if Guenther hadn't scored goals at a 136-goal 82-game pace through the first week of the season.
The third star was Jack Eichel, who scored seven points in his first three games of the season. Eichel opened the season with four assists against the Colorado Avalanche, then a goal and an assist against the St. Louis Blues, and then an assist in the Vegas Golden Knights third game against the Anaheim Ducks; after one week, Eichel is the NHL's leading point-getter, but he was likely snubbed for the first and second stars as four of these points were secondary assists.