With the NHL season set to hit the stretch run following the Olympics, it’s high time to keep an eye on major trophy races. One of those races is the Hart Trophy.
The Hart, by definition, is given to the player most valuable to his team. However, the award typically goes to the best player in the league in any given season. It’s not the sort of lifetime achievement award bestowed on a player for his longtime excellence. Anyone can win in any given year.
A good example was last season. Winnipeg Jets’ goaltender Connor Hellebuyck had a lights-out season. Hellebuyck took the Vezina and Hart Trophies in the same season.
That said, this year is a different story. Hellebuyck is nowhere near the same numbers as last season. So, that’s opened up the Hart race among the usual suspects: Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, and Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche.
But it’s MacKinnon who figures to be the frontrunner this season. A February 10 piece by The Athletic’s analytics expert Don Luszczyszyn looked into the Hart race, with MacKinnon being the solid favorite.
Now, it’s worth pointing out that MacKinnon isn’t the runaway favorite. But he does have a healthy lead over McDavid. The main criterion used to measure MacKinnon’s lead is his Net Rating, or the difference between his offensive and defensive ratings.
MacKinnon clocks in at a +22.3 with McDavid trailing at +21.0. Those are gaudy numbers that illustrate why MacKinnon is a superstar in his own right.
With Kucherov training at +18.7 and Cale Makar at +16.0, the Hart Trophy race is down to two horses. And it’s MacKinnon’s to lose.
MacKinnon will be looking to carry over Olympic success into NHL stretch run
MacKinnon will be looking to keep his Olympic success going as he heads back into the NHL stretch run. After the three games of the round-robin portion of the Olympic tourney, MacKinnon has two goals and three assists for five points.
Those are great numbers, though not quite as exciting as Connor McDavid, who has two goals and seven assists for nine points thus far.
But make no mistake. This isn’t a race between MacKinnon and McDavid. The two stars have played fantastically well. Team Canada coach Jon Cooper had the bright idea of putting both stars on the same line. Boy, did Cooper knock one out of the ballpark. McDavid and MacKinnon look great together. It’s too bad they’ll be foes once the Milano-Cortina Games are over. And unless MacKinnon’s production falls off a cliff, he’ll be the favorite to lock up his second-career Hart Trophy.
The only thing that could top an Olympic gold medal and a Hart Trophy in the same season would be a Stanley Cup.