Patrik Laine Is the New Finnish Flash

Finnish super rookie Patrik Laine had himself a night on Tuesday. Again.

Laine added three more goals, four points, one more hat trick, and a couple hundred haggard ball caps to his collection as the Jets destroyed Dallas 8-2 at Winnipeg's MTS Centre.

His eye-popping performance against the Stars brings his season goal total to 11, making him the league's first player to reach double-digit tallies, while thrusting himself into the NHL's overall goal-scoring lead. He's 18 years old.

Laine is the first player to score at least 11 goals in his first 14 career games since 1992-93, when three players—including Jets legend Teemu Selanne—achieved the feat. Selanne went on to score 76 goals that season and still holds the rookie record for goals in a single season. Selanne, better known as the Finnish Flash during his Jets days, is considered (along with Dale Hawerchuk) to be the greatest to ever play in Winnipeg

Laine—who was still nearly three years away from conception when Selanne set that record—is on pace for 64, which would vault him ahead of Hall of Famer Mike Bossy for the second most tallies ever by a rookie. Laine's closest modern comparable, Alex Ovechkin, scored 52 in 2005-06 while going head-to-head with Sidney Crosby in an epic race for the Calder Trophy.

The way Laine and other rookies like Auston Matthews are playing, we may be set for another memorable race for the league's top rookie award.

Three has been his number of choice so far, but his insane performance on Tuesday night brought a couple of fourths. Laine became the fourth player in league history to record multiple hat tricks before he turned 19—Jack Hamilton (1943-44), Hawerchuk (1981-82), and Trevor Linden (1988-89)—and is also the fourth in NHL history to put up multiple hat tricks in his first 14 career games.

Not only is he an absolute star in his own right, but the kid is clearly making those around him better, too. On a night when Laine got all the accolades, his linemate—23-year-old Mark Scheifele—had a four-point game against Dallas and now leads the NHL in points with 18 points, including nine goals. The third young gun on the Jets' top line, 20-year-old Nikolaj Ehlers, is on pace for a career-high 64 points after putting up 38 in 72 games last season.

The Jets currently sit in the second wild-card spot in a tough Western Conference. Despite missing the playoffs last season after making it the year before for the first time since returning to Winnipeg, with the imminent return of Jacob Trouba to complement one of the best first lines in the NHL, the Peg has a lot to be excited about—which is usually not a common sentiment this time of year.

Correction: A previous version of this post said the Jets made the playoffs last season.