Freddie’s gotta have Hart, maybe
Leafs goaltender in MVP consideration, but there’s plenty of others
The case can be made: Frederik Andersen for Hart.
The Maple Leafs goalie will almost certainly get lots of consideration for the Vezina Trophy, given to the goalie adjudged to be the best at his position. Other goalies have better save percentages and goalsagainst averages, which will work in their favour with Vezina voters.
Still, Andersen has given a still-young team with questionable defence and key players injured a chance to win just about every one of his starts. That can’t be overstated. So the case for him winning the Hart — given to the player deemed to be the most valuable player on his team — is stronger. But it won’t be easy. Nikita Kucherov might go wire-to-wire to win the scoring title on the NHL’s best team. Evgeni Malkin’s second-half surge on the goaltendingstarved Penguins might well carry Pittsburgh. Nathan MacKinnon could lead the unlikely Colorado Avalanche to the playoffs. Ditto perhaps for Taylor Hall in New Jersey and Alexander Barkov in Florida.
Slightly more than half of the 309 members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association who will vote on the Hart Memorial Trophy certainly have their work cut out for them this year.
There’s Sidney Crosby, still deemed to be the best player in the world, and Connor McDavid, his heir-apparent (and who’s more valuable to a team than McDavid to the Oilers?) Have we mentioned Alex Ovechkin and Patrick Laine and what their wonderful goalscoring duel means to their teams’ rise in the standings?
Those are merely the forwards. The award is open to players of all positions.
Voters, however, have tended to be biased against goalies because they have their own award (the Vezina), and sometimes appear to hold it against defencemen, who have the Norris to contend for.
Only one defenceman (Chris Pronger) and three goalies (Carey Price, Jose Theodore, Dominik Hasek) have won the Hart in the last 20 years. No one has been more valuable to a team than Henrik Lundqvist over the past 15 years, and he’s never gotten a sniff at the Hart.
Andersen has already won a major award: He shared the Jennings Trophy with John Gibson in 2015-16, his last year in Anaheim. It’s a straight statsbased award, given to the goalies on the team that was scored on the least. (A goalie must have appeared in at least 25 games to get his name on the trophy.) That year, the Vezina went to Washington’s Braden Holtby. “Everyone wants to ( be deemed) the best at their position, be the guy,” Andersen said. “Great teams have great players. But (awards) are secondary. They’re byproducts of a team doing well, especially for goalies. It really is about how well we do as a team. As a goalie, you always look better when you’re on a good team.”
A wide open field could well mean split votes. Those that put Crosby first are not likely to put Malkin second when they hand in their list of five candidates. Kucherov might be hurt by simply having Steven Stamkos as a teammate. Folks in Winnipeg say Blake Wheeler is the real MVP there, not Laine.
And when a team fails to make the playoffs, it tends to hurt MVP candidates. McDavid will almost certainly suffer that backlash despite how much of Edmonton’s offence he generates (McDavid is in on 44 per cent of Edmonton’s goals; Malkin is at 38 per cent, two ahead of Kucherov).
The chances of Hall, Barkov and MacKinnon getting votes may also depend on making the playoffs as voters look for ways to break ties on their ballots. The last time a player won the Hart on a non-playoff team was Mario Lemieux in 1988.
Voting begins the last week of the season and must be filed before the puck drops on the first playoff game. Five names are on every ballot. Here’s how things are shaping up: HART (Most valuable player) Voters: Select members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association Last Year’s Winner: Connor McDavid Skinny: Kucherov is the favourite. He was the leader when the PHWA polled its members mid-season and it would take either a brave, or idiotic, voter to leave him off a ballot, especially if he goes wire-to-wire leading the league in points. Malkin, who won the award in 2012, is the sexy up-and-coming choice. There will be a movement toward Hall if the Devils make the playoffs. Having seen them more, Western voters might align behind MacKinnon or McDavid. JAMES NORRIS MEMORIAL TROPHY (Top defenceman) Voters: PHWA Last Year’s Winner: Brent Burns Skinny: Tampa’s Victor Hedman was the mid-season leader, according to the PHWA poll, and probably hasn’t been passed. Minnesota would be lost without minutes-leader Ryan Suter. Drew Doughty is a plus player with good possession numbers whose minutes are right behind Suter. A darkhorse could be Dougie Hamilton, who has terrific possession numbers and is having an outstanding season in Calgary. VEZINA TROPHY (Top goalie) Voters: The 31 NHL general managers Last Year’s Winner: Sergei Bobrovsky Skinny: Andersen ought to draw a great deal of attention, leading the league as he does in minutes and games played by a goalie, but Connor Hellebuyck in Winnipeg is third in minutes and has both a better GAA and save percentage than Andersen. Ditto Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, fourth in minutes with better GAA and save percentage than both, and the leader in wins. Pekka Rinne, Jonathan Quick and Tuukka Rask are also at the top of their games and might more easily come to mind. FRANK J. SELKE TROPHY (Top defensive forward) Voters: PHWA Last Year’s Winner: Patrice Bergeron Skinny: The usual suspects (Bergeron, Ryan Kesler) have been injured, opening up the possibilities for Barkov in Florida. Leafs’ first-line winger Zach Hyman leads all forwards in penalty kill minutes per game, with Toronto’s PK rated seventh. Former Selke winner Anze Kopitar remains both a top scorer and top penalty killer with the Kings (second best PK in the NHL). CALDER MEMORIAL TROPHY (Top rookie) Voters: PHWA Last Year’s Winner: Auston Matthews Skinny: This is going to Mathew Barzal (69 points in 69 games) of the New York Islanders, no questions asked. It had been closer before Boston defenceman Charlie McAvoy got hurt, and before Vancouver’s Brock Boeser (the all-star game MVP) slowed down and suffered a season-ending injury. The three had been neck-andneck-and-neck. LADY BYNG MEMORIAL TROPHY (For sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct) Voters: PHWA Last Year’s Winner: Johnny Gaudreau Skinny: Buffalo’s Ryan O’Reilly has taken one minor penalty all season and remains one of the more underrated performers in the league. Defenceman Will Butcher has played a full season of big minutes in New Jersey, taking only two minors. Toronto’s William Nylander has three minors and plays a big role. TED LINDSAY AWARD (Most outstanding player) Voters: Players Last Year’s Winner: Connor McDavid Skinny: The award often mirrors the Hart in that it is rarely given to a player whose team missed the playoffs. Like the Hart, its last non-playoff winner was Lemieux in 1988. This year, though, the players would likely look the other way and give it again to McDavid, though they could quite as easily honour Crosby, a three-time winner. One can easily see a Malkin-for-Hart, Crosby-forLindsay campaign. JACK ADAMS AWARD (Top coach) Voters: NHL Broadcasters Association Last Year’s Winner: John Tortorella Skinny: There’s only been one repeat winner (Jacques Demers in 1987 and ’88). Vegas’ Gerard Gallant has to be the favourite, taking a team of castoffs and turning an expansion team into a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Winnipeg’s Paul Maurice is another candidate. He started the season as a favourite to be an early firing if the Jets failed to take off. Any other candidates are just fodder for the ballot. GM OF THE YEAR Voters: A panel of 40 including GMs and NHL employees Last Year’s Winner: David Poile Skinny: The vote happens at the conclusion of the second round of the playoffs. George McPhee, architect of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, should be the runaway winner. It shouldn’t even be close, though let’s give Tampa GM Steve Yzerman credit for some trade deadline moves that made the Lightning even more dangerous as a Cup contender.