IT’S CONNOR’S WORLD NOW.
It’s Connor McDavid’s world, we’re just standing in it as he skates circles around us.
The 20-year-old Edmonton Oilers centre won the Hart Trophy on Wednesday night, being named NHL MVP for the first time in his young career, and he picked up two other awards Wednesday as the league handed out its end-of-season honours.
Having long since locked up the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s highest scorer, McDavid also picked up the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the player voted the league’s most outstanding by members of its players association. McDavid became the 10th player to win those three awards in the same year (per SB Nation), and he is just the third to win the Hart before his 21st birthday, joining Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby.
That’s elite company, indeed, but McDavid took a big step this season toward fulfilling the lofty expectations many had for him even before Edmonton made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft. The 6foot-1, 200-pound Ontario native scored 30 goals and added a leaguehigh 70 assists while leading the Oilers to their first playoff appearance in 11 years.
“To see the trophies up close and personal, touch them, get your picture with them, it makes it a little more real,” McDavid told Associated Press. “Today is a very special day in my life, for sure.”
Crosby was beaten out by McDavid, as was Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, for the Hart this year. Bobrovsky did, however, pick up the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie, topping the Capitals’ Braden Holtby and the Canadiens’ Carey Price.
The Norris Trophy, for the NHL’s top defenceman, went to the Sharks’ Brent Burns. It was the first time a San Jose player won that award, and Burns got it ahead of the Senators’ Erik Karlsson and the Lightning’s Victor Hedman.
The Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanlike play, topping the Wild’s Mikael Granlund and the Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko. Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman helped present that award, and 65-year-old NHL legend Marcel Dionne caused an awkward moment when he motioned toward her and exclaimed, “Look at those legs!”
As expected, the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews took the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, beating out the Jets’ Patrik Laine and the Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski. No Toronto player had won the Calder since Brit Selby in 1966.
The Selke Trophy, for best defensive forward, went to the Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron, with the Ducks’ Ryan Kesler and the Wild’s Mikko Koivu as the other finalists. Bergeron joined Hall of Famer Bob Gainey, who presented the award, as the only players to win the Selke four times.
Other NHL award winners included the Blue Jackets’ John Tortorella (top coach) and the Predators’ David Poile (top executive), while Senators goalie Craig Anderson won the Masterton Trophy, given to “the player who exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.” Anderson was forced to take several leaves of absence from Ottawa this season while his wife, Nicholle, battled cancer.
The evening’s most emotional moment came when Hurricanes forward Bryan Bickell, a longtime member of the Blackhawks, was honoured for coming to back to play after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November.
Many in the audience at Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena shed tears during a video featuring Bickell and his wife, Amanda, while the NHL and its players association made a $20,000 joint contribution to their charitable foundation, which trains rescued pit bulls to help abused children and those with MS.