Crosby and McDavid have company as MVP race heats up
Nobody could touch Patrick Kane in last season’s race for the Hart Trophy.
The Chicago Blackhawks winger and Art Ross Trophy winner (by 17 points!) earned 121-of-150 first-place votes for NHL MVP and 93 per cent of the vote overall.
A runaway winner for the league’s top award seems unlikely this season.
Co-favourites in the fall, Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid looked to be 1-2 at mid-season, but since then, a flood of worthy contenders has emerged.
Here is a look at the crowded field:
Crosby: He’s No. 1 in pointsper-game and just clinched his first 40-goal season since 2009-10. He’s right there in the thick of the race for the Rocket Richard and Art Ross trophies despite missing nearly two weeks to start the season.
McDavid: It’s already easy to take McDavid for granted, but remember: he’s only 20, in his second NHL season and already an MVP candidate. The Oilers captain has had a hand in almost 40 per cent of his club’s offence this season, leads the league in assists and remains a favourite to win the scoring title.
Kane: He’s not producing at last year’s pace — 46 goals and 106 points — but has been pretty close to it in the past couple months, collecting 20 goals and 30 points since Feb. 1. The NHL hasn’t had a repeat MVP winner since Alex Ovechkin (2008 and 2009).
Brad Marchand: No one had more goals or points since the beginning of December heading into Monday’s action, making the 28-year-old a viable threat to win both the Art Ross and Rocket Richard.
Nicklas Backstrom: Backstrom trails only McDavid in assists, hovers near the league lead in power-play points and is a dark horse to win the Art Ross.
Brent Burns: Burns has cooled off this month, but he’s still has an outside shot at joining Paul Coffey, Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque, Denis Potvin and Doug Wilson (his general manager with the Sharks) as the only defencemen to crack 30 goals and 80 points in one season.
Erik Karlsson: The Senators captain is tiptoeing back into not only the Norris race as the league’s top defenceman, but the Hart with maybe the most well-rounded season of his career. Karlsson is pretty close to a point-per-game once more, while leading the league in blocked shots.