The high-danger scoring area produced one of the stranger leaderboards of the 2025-26 NHL season. Jake DeBrusk finished first. Connor McDavid finished second. One shot separated them.
That pairing tells us almost everything worth knowing about the statistic. DeBrusk does much of his best work around the crease, fighting through sticks and bodies for pucks that travel only a few feet. McDavid can start several strides away, bend a defensive structure around his speed, then attack the same patch before anyone closes it.
Different routes. Same destination.
According to NHL EDGE, DeBrusk put 121 shots on goal from high-danger areas during the 2025-26 regular season. McDavid had 120. Jake Guentzel followed with 116, while Tomas Hertl produced 113.
Those totals measure more than willingness to crash the net. They show which forwards kept solving hockey’s hardest spatial problem: getting the puck into the middle while defenders desperately tried to keep it out.
What NHL EDGE actually calls high danger
The high-danger scoring area has a defined shape. It is not simply another name for somewhere near the crease.
NHL EDGE classifies the area as the space within 29 feet of the center of the goal, bounded on each side by an imaginary line running from the faceoff dot to a point two feet outside the goal post. Picture a funnel stretching outward from the crease.
The closer a shooter works toward its narrow end, the less reaction time a goalie gets. Rebounds become harder to control. Screens matter more, deflections become dangerous, and a lateral pass can force a goaltender across the crease before the shot arrives.
Perimeter volume can fool the eye. A winger might finish with four shots after spending the night firing through traffic from outside the dots. Another might record only two attempts but create both from the edge of the crease after beating the inside coverage.
The box score gives both players shots. Location data tells you which attempts scared the defense.
That distinction explains why the high-danger scoring area makes such an interesting measuring stick. It rewards access rather than simple volume, and access takes many forms.
Jake DeBrusk kept arriving at the front
DeBrusk’s league-leading 121 high-danger shots on goal were not a one-season accident. He had already established himself as an interior scorer during his first season in Vancouver, and his production jumped again in 2025-26. His 22 high-danger goals tied for 10th in the NHL overall.
The interesting part is how he gets there.
DeBrusk does not simply stand beside the goalie and wait. Vancouver has used him as a true net-front threat, especially on the power play. He tracks loose pucks, slides off defenders and attacks the crease as the puck changes sides.
One sequence against Tampa Bay in November captured the job perfectly. The puck reached the crease through traffic, DeBrusk found it in tight and snapped it past Jonas Johansson before the defense could reset. Former Canucks coach Rick Tocchet had already praised that willingness to work around the net, while teammate Tyler Myers pointed to DeBrusk’s hands in tight and his comfort living at the front.
His skating adds another layer. DeBrusk reached 23.53 mph at top speed in 2025-26, placing him in the 95th percentile among forwards, and recorded 168 bursts above 20 mph.
That speed matters because the high-danger scoring area becomes harder to defend when a forward attacks it with momentum. A defenseman can lean on a stationary screen, tie up a stick and establish body position. DeBrusk forces a different calculation because he can travel downhill, cut inside and reach the front before the defender establishes leverage.
On the power play, he can move with the puck rather than merely waiting beside the crease. His game around the net looks simple only after he arrives there.
Getting there is the skill.
Connor McDavid breaks the structure first
McDavid finished one shot behind DeBrusk with 120 high-danger shots on goal and scored 26 times from those locations, tied for third in the NHL.
He reaches the high-danger scoring area in almost the opposite way. McDavid does not need to win a prolonged wrestling match at the crease because he can create the opening several seconds earlier.
A defender gives him space through the neutral zone because getting beaten clean means disaster. Another shades toward the middle as McDavid crosses the blue line, while a third starts watching the passing lane. By then, the defense has already bent toward one skater.
That is when McDavid attacks the gap it created.
His tracking data helps explain the physical burden he places on opponents. During the 2025-26 regular season, McDavid skated 330.27 miles, the highest single-season total NHL EDGE has recorded during the puck-tracking era. NHL.com identified that figure specifically as his league-leading regular-season skating distance, not a combined regular-season and playoff total.
Edmonton also led the NHL in bursts above 22 mph. McDavid’s speed turns what appears to be a safe defensive cushion into space he can erase in two strides.
Once he gets inside, the problem changes. Backing off protects against the rush but gives McDavid room to carry the puck toward the middle. Stepping up earlier risks letting him accelerate around the defender. Sending help creates passing lanes.
There is no clean answer, and McDavid rode that pressure to 138 points and his sixth Art Ross Trophy in 2025-26.
The remarkable part of his high-danger total is not simply that he finished near the top. He reached the same interior ice as dedicated net-front forwards while also carrying the creation burden of the league’s most dynamic puck transporter.
Jake Guentzel sees openings before they appear
Guentzel finished third with 116 high-danger shots on goal and tied McDavid with 26 high-danger goals. His route into the middle depends less on brute force and more on what happens before the puck reaches him.
Watch Guentzel away from the puck and he rarely looks disconnected from the next action. He changes depth, slips behind a defender’s shoulder and adjusts his stick while the puck moves across the zone. By the time the passing lane opens, he often occupies its endpoint.
Tampa Bay gives him elite creators to read. Nikita Kucherov recorded 51 primary assists in 2025-26, third most in the NHL, while Brayden Point remained one of the league’s fastest forwards despite missing 19 games.
That combination creates difficult choices for a defense. When Kucherov controls the puck higher in the zone or along a flank, defenders cannot simply stare at Guentzel near the net. Point’s movement creates another threat through the middle, while Brandon Hagel adds another layer of pressure.
Guentzel lives in the hesitation between those decisions. Should the weak-side defender collapse? Should he protect the seam? Can the center release toward Kucherov without leaving the slot?
Guentzel needs only one wrong answer.
His 116 high-danger shots also continued a pattern, with Guentzel ranking among the league leaders in the category during each of his first two seasons with Tampa Bay. That repetition points toward an offensive trait rather than a temporary shooting spike.
He does not wait for open ice. He anticipates where it will be.
Tomas Hertl wins the battle after contact
If Guentzel slips into space, Hertl often creates his own by refusing to leave it.
The Vegas center generated 113 high-danger shots on goal, fourth most in the NHL during the 2025-26 regular season. His game inside the high-danger scoring area looks heavier than Guentzel’s or McDavid’s.
Hertl can receive contact without losing his stick position. He protects the puck with his body, holds ground around the crease and stays available even after the first defensive hit. That becomes especially valuable when possessions stop looking clean.
Playoff hockey tends to compress the rink. Passing lanes close sooner, defensemen collapse lower and the first chance rarely arrives untouched. Vegas leaned into that style during the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, leading the NHL with 179 high-danger shots on goal and 43 high-danger goals. Hertl produced 23 of those high-danger shots, third among all playoff skaters.
Those numbers fit the player. Hertl does not need the interior to stay open for long because he can keep a possession alive after the opening disappears.
Getting inside once is difficult. Staying there after someone hits you is another skill entirely.
John Tavares proves speed is only one route
John Tavares adds an important wrinkle to the leaderboard. At 35, he ranked ninth in the NHL with 106 high-danger shots on goal and finished 10th with 22 high-danger goals during the 2025-26 season.
He did not get there by skating like McDavid.
Tavares has built a career around subtler advantages: shoulder position, hand placement, timing and an almost stubborn instinct for where loose pucks will land. Around the crease, half a step can matter more than outright speed.
A forward who arrives early can seal a defender on his back. One who reads the rebound correctly does not need to outrun anyone, while a player with strong hands can turn a broken play into a shot before the goalie regains his angle.
Tavares keeps finding those margins, and his presence near the top of the high-danger scoring area leaderboard helps explain why the statistic matters. It does not identify one type of athlete. It identifies a type of result.
The best players simply get there through different tools.
High-danger volume tells us what goal totals sometimes hide
Goals remain the final currency, but they can fluctuate. A puck clips a skate. A goalie steals one. A shooter runs hot for three weeks, then hits four posts in five games.
Shot location gives the analysis another layer.
Repeatedly generating attempts from the high-danger scoring area tells us a forward keeps reaching the places where defenses least want him. That does not guarantee a goal every night, but it does suggest the underlying process is working.
DeBrusk led the league because he kept attacking the front with speed and timing. McDavid ripped open defensive structure before the shot developed. Guentzel anticipated the next gap, Hertl held his ground through contact, and Tavares beat defenders with positioning.
Five players reached the same territory through five different mechanisms. That is more useful than treating net-front scoring as one generic skill.
The next question is how they got there
The high-danger scoring area already tells us more than raw shot totals can. The next step is separating access from creation.
A shot from five feet counts the same on the location leaderboard whether the shooter carried the puck through three defenders or tapped in a rebound after a teammate created everything. Those plays should not tell us the same story.
As tracking improves, analysts can ask sharper questions. How often did a player carry the puck into the dangerous area himself? How many chances followed lateral passes? Which forwards generated opportunities off rebounds, rushes, cycles or power-play rotations? Who needed a teammate to collapse the defense first?
That is where the data becomes especially useful.
For now, the 2025-26 leaderboard gives us a revealing snapshot: DeBrusk had 121, McDavid 120, Guentzel 116 and Hertl 113.
The totals sit close together, but the hockey behind them does not. One player attacks the crease downhill. Another bends the defense with speed. One disappears into soft ice, while another wins the same patch through strength.
They all end up in the place every defense is designed to protect.
That is what makes the leaderboard worth studying.
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FAQs
What is the NHL high-danger scoring area?
NHL EDGE defines it as the area within 29 feet of the goal center, bounded by lines running from the faceoff dots toward the posts.
Who led the NHL in high-danger shots in 2025-26?
Jake DeBrusk led the NHL with 121 high-danger shots on goal. Connor McDavid finished one behind him with 120.
How many high-danger shots did Connor McDavid have?
McDavid recorded 120 high-danger shots on goal and scored 26 goals from those locations during the 2025-26 season.
Which other forwards ranked near the top?
Jake Guentzel recorded 116 high-danger shots, while Tomas Hertl finished with 113.
Why are high-danger shots useful?
They show which forwards repeatedly reach the areas defenses protect most closely. That can reveal offensive process better than raw shot volume alone.
