Mikko Rantanen's current playoff point streak - and historic comparables

[bobholly39]

As we're all witnessing in the past ~week in the 2025 playoffs, Mikko Rantanen has been on a bit of an insane streak. I'm curious to find out what are some historic comparables? Even if you go back to the likes of peak Gretzky & co - how much does some of his current streak stand out? What are the records he's established, and how close is he to others?

Some of the things he's done include:

1. 14 points in a 4 game stretch. I assume that's been done before. How does this rank historically though, high, or not that high?

2. 8 goals in a 4 game stretch. Same as first one - very impressive, but I'm assuming it's not a record. Or is it? Where does it rank?

3. 4 straight 3+ point games. How does this compare all-time? Is this #1? Close?

4. Back to back hat tricks? Again - I expect it's definitely been done, but how often? Has anyone done it 3 straight games?

5. A point on 12 straight Dallas goals. I have to imagine that's a record...is it? And whether yes or no, what are the comparables?

6. Two straight games with a hat trick in the same period. I'm sure this is a record too as I think I heard them say it...how often has this been done at all in the playoffs (3 goals in a period)? How about, how many players have done it more than once in their careers, let alone in consecutive games?

7. Three straight games with 3+ points in a single period. Is this a record? How does this compare?

Let me know if I missed anything else of significance worth tracking.

 

[Michael Farkas]

5. A point on 12 straight Dallas goals. I have to imagine that's a record...is it? And whether yes or no, what are the comparables?

Yes, second place is Lemieux in 1992 with 9 straight.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

4. Back to back hat tricks? Again - I expect it's definitely been done, but how often? Has anyone done it 3 straight games?

That's only been twice before (in the playoffs). Doug Bentley in 1944, and Jari Kurri in 1985 (one of which was a 4 goal game).

 

[Matsun]

Draisaitl vs Calgary in 2022:

​	G​	A​	P​
Game 1​	1​	2​	3​
Game 2​	1​	2​	3​
Game 3​	0​	4​	4​
Game 4​	0​	3​	3​
Game 5​	0​	4​	4​

Most assists in a playoff series:

​

Player	Season	Team	Opponent	GP	A
Draisaitl	2021-22	EDM	CAL	5	15
Gretzky	1984-85	EDM	CHI	6	14
Middleton	1982-83	BOS	BUF	7	14
Gretzky	1986-87	EDM	LAK	5	13
Gilmour	1993-94	TOR	SJS	7	13

Rantanens goalscoring and the fact that he doesn't have a McDavid on his team is probably more impressive, but I feel like this is a somewhat comparable recent offensive explosion.

I'm excited that Rantanen got traded because of the chances he'll get to really show what he is made of without his strong teammates around him. If he shows that he can be a top 10 guy outside Colorado he could be a player I have sneaky high in the next top 100 player ranking.

 

[GMR]

Franzen scored 9 goals in four games against Colorado in 2008.

Gretzky probably had some insane numbers anytime Edmonton faced Winnipeg in the playoffs.

 

[bobholly39]

1. 14 points in a 4 game stretch. I assume that's been done before. How does this rank historically though, high, or not that high?

3. 4 straight 3+ point games. How does this compare all-time? Is this #1? Close?

Draisaitl in 2022 vs Calgary has Rantanen matched/beat on both counts here so far.

He has a 4 game streak of 14 points too - which is really a 5 game streak of 17 points.
This was 5 straight 3+ point games for Draisaitl.

As far as I can tell - Gretzky never had a stretch of 4 straight 3+ point games.

Draisaitl did only have 2 goals in those 5 games, to Rantanen's 8 goals in 4 games so far.

I see @Matsun beat me to it.

 

[MadLuke]

As far as I can tell - Gretzky never had a stretch of 4 straight 3+ point games.

that do sound an unlikely distribution

he had a 7-4-3 strech from 1985-04--25 to 1985-05-07... and 3-4-4 just after that against those Hawks... going by eyes it seem to have never happen yes, maxed to 3.

 

[Crosby2010]

This might stun some people, but Gretzky has "only" had three straight playoff games with at least 3 points twice. And it happened almost in the same series. 1985, last game vs. Winnipeg. Then first two vs. Chicago. Then a gap, then last three vs. Chicago of that same series. Unreal that he didn't do this more than that. That shocks me. But never 4.

McDavid has never done it.

Draisaitl did it for 5 games in a row in 2022

Mario never did this. Now that's a shocker!

Neither did Malkin or Crosby.

Messier didn't either.

Neither did Lafleur.

Honestly, who is left? I checked Coffey and Kurri thinking that 1985 would be the year but that didn't happen either. Anytime Gretzky didn't do something that someone else did then I say you take notice.

 

[WarriorofTime]

This might stun some people, but Gretzky has "only" had three straight playoff games with at least 3 points twice. And it happened almost in the same series. 1985, last game vs. Winnipeg. Then first two vs. Chicago. Then a gap, then last three vs. Chicago of that same series. Unreal that he didn't do this more than that. That shocks me. But never 4.

Compared to how often in regular seasons?

 

[Crosby2010]

Compared to how often in regular seasons?

Three times in the 1984 season alone. I picked that year just because of the 51 game point streak and the fact that he AVERAGED 3 points per game during that time. Looks like three in the 1982 season as well. We could go on, but needless to say Gretzky did this a lot in the regular season. Playoffs are a different animal.

 

[WarriorofTime]

59/208 career playoff games with 3+ points = 28.4 %

459/1487 regular season games with 3+ points = 30.9 %

Bit harder to score in playoffs, not huge difference but likely bigger if accounting for his playoff GP skewing more towards Oilers/80s which were a lot higher scoring for Gretzky.

Streak aspect more variance heavy.

 

[Matsun]

This might stun some people, but Gretzky has "only" had three straight playoff games with at least 3 points twice. And it happened almost in the same series. 1985, last game vs. Winnipeg. Then first two vs. Chicago. Then a gap, then last three vs. Chicago of that same series. Unreal that he didn't do this more than that. That shocks me. But never 4.

McDavid has never done it.

Draisaitl did it for 5 games in a row in 2022

Mario never did this. Now that's a shocker!

Neither did Malkin or Crosby.

Messier didn't either.

Neither did Lafleur.

Honestly, who is left? I checked Coffey and Kurri thinking that 1985 would be the year but that didn't happen either. Anytime Gretzky didn't do something that someone else did then I say you take notice.

These are the only guys that have more than 5 3-Point games in a playoff run:

Player​	Season​	3 Point Games​	GP​
Wayne Gretzky​	1984-85​	9​	18​
Wayne Gretzky​	1987-88​	8​	19​
Leon Draisaitl​	2021-22​	7​	16​
Wayne Gretzky​	1992-93​	7​	24​
Connor McDavid​	2023-24​	7​	25​
Denis Savard​	1984-85​	6​	15​
Connor McDavid​	2021-22​	6​	16​
Mike Bossy​	1980-81​	6​	18​
Paul Coffey​	1984-85​	6​	18​
Jari Kurri​	1984-85​	6​	18​
Wayne Gretzky​	1983-84​	6​	19​
Nikita Kucherov​	2020-21​	6​	23​
Mario Lemieux​	1990-91​	6​	23​

​

Seems likely Draisaitl has the record for most consecutive 3 point games in the playoffs since Gretzky never took it in his big years. We'll see if Rantanen ties it next game.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Draisaitl had 3 or more points in every game in the 5 game series against Calgary in 2022. 17 points in 5 games total.

 

[The Panther]

Yep, Draisaitl in 2002 vs. Calgary was the most points EVER in any five-game series (17). Although, I think McDavid was actually better in that series...

Rantanen's had such a weird season. Seemed he was going fine as usual with Colorado, then contract issues heated up, then fairly dismal results with Carolina for all of 13 games (looked like his career as a A-lister might be in trouble), then inexplicably dealt to Dallas where he did okay to close out the regular season, then suddenly he's having all-time career-best numbers in the playoffs. (He did get a lot of random puck-luck yesterday, so I'm gonna call it now -- he doesn't get three points in game two!)