During the 2023-24 offseason, the Vancouver Canucks made a flurry of winger signings. The club brought in significant offensive threats such as Jake DeBrusk and Daniel Sprong, defensively sound Danton Heinen and one other forward, who was neither in Kiefer Sherwood.
The Canucks got a glimpse of what type of player Sherwood was during their six-game series in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was a speedy winger who brought the energy with his physical play and his ability to get under the opposing team’s skin.
General manager Patrik Allvin confirmed this by saying Canucks captain Quinn Hughes was the most excited about the Sherwood signing. “I think I talked to Quinn [Hughes], and he was more excited about Sherwood than anyway; he said he pissed the whole team off in the playoffs. He was happy to get him here.”
Over the six-game series against the Canucks, Sherwood led the Predators in hits, laying the body 33 times for an average of 5.5 hits per game. He managed to do this much damage while averaging the fourth least amount of ice time per game (11:48). Sherwood finished the postseason 58th in hits out of 329 players despite playing such few games.
And now, Sherwood has brought that same energy and physicality he used against the Canucks in the playoffs to their lineup so far in the 2024-25 season.
The 29-year-old winger is off to a historic start, throwing 44 hits in just six games this season. He leads defenceman Jeremy Lauzon by 10 and the next forward, Ty Kartye, by 15.
Lauzon broke Matt Martin’s record for most hits in a single season (382) last year, finishing with 383. Martin owed the top three hitting seasons before Lauzon broke his record last year, finishing 2015-16 with 365, 2011-12 with 374 and 2014-15 with 382.
If we’re to pace this out for a full 82-game season, Sherwood would be on track to obliterate the previous NHL record with 601 hits.
Now, this is almost surely an unachievable feat, as nobody has even come within 200 of this projection. Also, if Sherwood’s going to be throwing his body around this often, he’ll likely run into some minor bumps and bruises that will likely keep him out of a game or two. But is it possible that Sherwood breaks this record? Absolutely.
Now, two weeks into the NHL season, we looked at the previous five years’ player hit leaders to see how Sherwood’s pace this year compares.
2024-25 – Kiefer Sherwood – 44 hits through six games, 82-game pace of 601 hits.
2023-24 – Paul Cotter – 31 hits through seven games, 82-game pace of 363 hits
2022-23 – Evander Kane – 22 hits through four games, 82-game pace of 451 hits
2021-22 – Cal Clutterbuck – 35 hits through six games, 82-game pace of 478 hits
2020-21 – Brandon Tanev – 43 hits through seven games, 82-game pace of 504 hits
2019-20 – Ryan Reaves – 37 hits through seven games, 82-game pace of 433 hits
This type of physicality and energy is somewhat new for Sherwood, as through his first five seasons in the NHL, he registered 258 hits. Last season, his hitting prowess blossomed as he had 234 hits in 68 games, finishing 15th in the entire league in total hits.
Sherwood looks to shatter his previous career high and potentially the NHL record this season. Once Dakota Joshua returns – who finished ninth in total hits last season – the hard-hitting duo will keep the opposition on their toes and need to look over their shoulder so they don’t get run over along the boards.
