Kucherov, MacKinnon or McDavid: Who will win the Hart Trophy?

The NHL has announced the nominations for the season’s MVP. The winner will be awarded the prestigious Hart Trophy. The nomination includes two previous winners. Defending champion from last season Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov, who reigned supreme in 2018-19. The third to the party is Nathan MacKinnon.

TheHart Trophy is the most important individual trophy of the regular season. It has a very long history and has been awarded since the 1923-24 season, when Frank Nighbor first won it. The list of winners includes two Czech players. The first one is Dominik Hašek, who won this prestigious award as the only goalie in two consecutive seasons, namely in 1997 and 1998. In 1999, Jaromir Jagr reigned supreme.

Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay’s leader Nikita Kucherov had the season of his life in the NHL. For the second time in his career, he won the Art Ross Trophy, which is awarded to the winner of the Canadian scoring race. He dominated productivity with 144 points on 44 goals and 100 assists. Of course, in doing so, he set a new club scoring record by breaking his own output of 128 points.

Together with Connor McDavid, they extended the club of players who reached the 100 assists mark in a season. In the past, only Wayne Gretzky had done it countless times, and Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr had done it once as well.

Kucherov has already won the Hart Trophy in the 2018-19 season, and he also dominated the Canadian scoring just this season. If successful, he can repeat his double from this season.

Connor McDavid – Edmonton Oilers

Edmonton captain Connor McDavid is already a three-time winner of this award. He has dominated the NHL in 2017, 2021 and 2023. He has the same number of triumphs as, say, Alexander Ovechkin and has been in the final three virtually every season.

McDavid missed a few games before the end of the regular season and this time he is only 3rd in Canadian scoring with 132 points. He did not repeat his sensational performance (153 points) from last season, when he ruled the scorers with 64 goals.

This season he has slowed down his scoring, which is also due to an 11-game streak in a row when he came up empty and had 32 fewer goals. However, he has experienced a resurgence as a passer, which has been exploited by his teammate Zach Hyman, who, thanks largely to McDavid, has broken the 50-goal mark for the season.

Moreover, he became only the 4th player in history to break the 100 assists mark in a season, then Kucherov joined him. This league star also has 5 Art Ross Trophy wins and many other awards in his collection. The only thing he’s still missing is the Stanley Cup.

Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado Avalanche

Colorado’s scoring leader has been in a tug of war with Kucherov for over half the season. As a result, he had the year of his life with 140 points. He finished second in points behind the Russian. However, he still made his mark in the annals of NHL history with an unprecedented feat of scoring in 35 straight home games since the start of the season. That’s the second-longest streak in franchise history. The record is held by Wayne Gretzky with 40 games.

The Avalanche forward has been shortlisted several times, but never won this prestigious award. When else should he get it than in the season of his life. However, he has some really tough calibers against him and whoever wins it will be well deserved. All three of these players, not counting Auston Matthews, have dominated this season.

Source: NHL