The NHL regular season comes to an end next weekend and it’s time to look at candidates for the Hart Trophy, given annually to the NHL MVP. Here are six worthy candidates followed by how I’d rank them… Connor McDavid (Edmonton): Hockey’s brightest young star would invoke the name of Gretzky even if he didn’t […]
It’s time to decide who should win the Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league’s MVP. A goaltender hasn’t won the trophy since 2002. I think it’s time for that streak to end this year and believe the case for Ottawa’s Craig Anderson is virtually airtight.
The NHL season officially came to an end last night as the league handed out its awards in Las Vegas. Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin won the Hart Trophy, symbolic of the league’s MVP and New York’s Henrik Lundqvist was named winner of the Vezina Award, which celebrates the league’s top goaltender. TheSportsNotebook believes Phoenix goalie Mike Smith should have won both awards (goalies are eligible for the Hart, as Lundqvist was a finalist), but that had been water under the bridge for some time, as the finalists have been made public for several weeks. Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson was named top defenseman and Ken Hitchcock of St. Louis brought him Coach of the Year. These individual winners—along with several honors—take their place with the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings in the history books for the 2012 season.
The playoff spots are settled in the NHL as a tight race at the bottom of the East was settled (Washington in, Buffalo out) and a wild race at the bottom of the West is sorted out (goodbye Dallas, Calgary and Colorado, hello Phoenix, Los Angeles & San Jose). There are some modest changes regarding seeding that will hinge on the final day of play today, but we know the 16 teams who will fight for the Stanley Cup. What we don’t know is who should win the Hart Trophy, the honor given to the NHL’s MVP, so taking a look at that order of business is how TheSportsNotebook will wrap up the hockey regular season.