EP Rinkside 3 Stars: Making the case...

Things are heating up across the league. Against all odds, playoff and awards races are developing to the point where they have a little more intrigue than I would have thought, say, a month ago.

That's good because, like, it's cool when things come down to the wire in this sport, and too often, things feel like a runaway.

Now it's time to look at who's out there making a case for themselves to do something exciting.

Let’s go:

3. …Make more money

Every time David Pastrňák does something good this season, it feels like you can tack a few thousand bucks onto his AAV.

Nice individual play leading to a scoring chance? That'll be another $5,000. Assist? Maybe another $10,000. Goals? Yeah, call that $25,000.

Or something like that, anyway.

This guy is having a season for the ages, scoring another seven