Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is one of three nominees for the 2025-26 Hart trophy. The NHL has been rolling out lists of nominees for various awards the past couple of days.
The other nominees for the award are Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers.
MacKinnon finished the regular season with 53 goals and 74 assists in 80 games. His 53 goals are a personal best, while his 74 assists fell just short of his totals in each of the past two years. In all, he finished with 127 points, the second-most of his career.
MacKinnon played one more game this year than he did in 2024-25, but put up a remarkable 350 shots, 30 more than in 2024-25.He first won the award in 2023-24, when he recorded 51 goals and 89 assists in all 82 games played.
He is one of the best players that drives games his own way and always expects the best out of his teammates, especially his linemates. He had seven game-winning goals, as well as 11 power play goals and 30 power play points.
Colorado’s power play struggled heavily for most of the regular season, but MacKinnon led the team with his solid production on the unit. It was the team’s biggest flaw for a while, but MacKinnon made it not so bad.
Another stellar stat that MacKinnon developed this season is his plus-minus of +57. Guess what? He also led the league in that category. The next closest to that total was Martin Necas, at +47.
One thing we got to see MacKinnon do late in the season and into the postseason is his physicality. While we don’t want to see that all the time due to risk of injury, it was awesome to see him step up his physicality game, finishing with 64 hits, good for sixth on the team.
He was also superb at skating with the puck, as he always seemed to be fearless when skating between multiple defenderes. A lot of players won’t ever attempt that, but MacKinnon did it all the time.
MacKinnon fits right in with the Avalanche’s way, kind of shifting focus away from the accolades. But as fans, we love to see his work pay off and get noticed by the voters. MacKinnon and the rest of the team doesn’t care about winning the awards. He only cares about bringing the Stanley Cup back to Denver, Colorado.
Maybe MacKinnon can make up for head coach Jared Bednar’s Jack Adams snub.
Add us as a preferred source on Google