RALEIGH, N.C. — In the middle of one of the most unlikely playoff scoring heaters the National Hockey League has seen in years, Brett Howden got a question no one asks in polite company.
The kind you don’t lob at a co-worker. Or your neighbour.
“Did you ever think you should have asked for a little bit more money?”
It came at the tail end of a podium availability during the Colorado series — awkward, blunt, and dripping with hindsight.
Howden smiled, waited for the room to finish laughing, then deadpanned the only answer he could.
“That never even crossed my mind.”
What also never crossed anyone’s mind back in November 2024 — when Howden inked a five-year deal worth $2.5 million annually — was that he’d morph into one of Vegas’ best playoff performers, let alone a springtime sniper pacing the field.
In Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday, the 28-year-old winger scored the first two goals in a game Vegas controlled for 50 minutes. He nearly had a third before the second intermission, used his wheels to draw a penalty, and spent the night turning Carolina’s defence.
For a long stretch, he was the story.
Then came 14 minutes of chaos, capped by a Seth Jarvis overtime winner that flipped the script and stole both the spotlight and the result.
Now, with the series tied 1-1 and shifting to T-Mobile Arena, the conversation keeps circling back to the same unlikely source:
No one has scored more this spring than the 13 he’s piled up through 18 games. Not the superstars. Not the usual suspects.
And here’s where it gets absurd.
He had 12 goals in 58 regular-season games.
Now he has more in the playoffs alone.
No player in NHL history has scored a dozen or more in the regular season and then topped that number in the same post-season.
All told, he’s sitting on 25 goals this year — roughly $100,000 per.
Add in three game-winners, and you’re talking about production every general manager in the league dreams of. At any price.
“I think over the course of my career I’ve started to build a little bit more consistency in my game, and I think that was something I struggled with early on,” said Howden, a first-round pick by Tampa who started his pro career with the Rangers before becoming a reclamation project in Vegas.
“I’ve always been a centre, but when I came here I started playing wing a little bit more and kind of got used to that.
“I enjoy going back and forth. Honestly, I try to bring the same game, just trying to play an honest game, and try to bring my best that I can every day.”
Right now, his best has him riding shotgun on the second line, clicking with Mitch Marner and William Karlsson — a trio that has quietly become one of Vegas’ most dangerous looks.
“I think he’s in the moment, I just think he likes the situation,” said head coach John Tortorella of Howden’s emergence.
“I think the line’s been good. That line, once we put it together, just connected. I don’t think he’s afraid of a damn thing, as far as playoffs, what comes with it, the flows of it. I just think he feels that good about himself.”
The pedigree was always there.
The Moose Jaw Warriors captain also captained Canada to gold at the 2015 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He won again at the world juniors. He chipped in during Vegas’ 2023 Cup run alongside Mark Stone and Chandler Stephenson.
This isn’t coming from nowhere.
It just never looked like this.
So when Howden opened the 2024-25 season with six goals in his first 12 games, Kelly McCrimmon didn’t hesitate, locking him up long-term.
The Manitoban rewarded that faith with 23 goals.
Now he’s blowing past expectations entirely.
His first Thursday came late in the opening frame off a broken play turned footrace. Marner flipped a backhand out to neutral ice, Howden beat Sean Walker to it, and in alone, he snapped it clean past Frederik Andersen.
Vegas’ second shot of the night.
Early in the second, his speed forced K’Andre Miller into an interference penalty. Moments after Carolina killed it off and the building found its voice again, Howden took it away.
He blew through the middle, danced around Jaccob Slavin, and tucked a forehand past Andersen to double the lead.
“Two great plays,” said Howden, crediting his teammates.
“One, Mitch put the puck in a perfect spot. I just looked down, the puck was there, and I felt like I had an edge on him. And then Barney (Ivan Barbashev) made a great play on the second one. I just tried using my speed up the middle there, and he found me in a great spot.”
For a while, it felt like he’d sucked the air out of Lenovo Center completely — like he’d buried the Hurricanes and put a stranglehold on the series.
That’s the job description for stars.
Names like Jack Eichel. Tomas Hertl. Pavel Dorofeyev. Maybe even Marner.
And he’s doing it for a price tag every team in the league would sign off on without a second thought.
Even if, in hindsight, someone might suggest he left a little on the table.