With the National Hockey League’s annual star-studded All-Star Weekend now having passed, the time has come for hockey fans and pundits to gear up for the second half of the season, filled with playoff pushes, trade rumors, which seat is hottest for the league’s bench bosses, and of course, award predictions.
The latter will be the highlight of this article, focusing on the Hart Memorial Trophy. This award was established back in 1924. Members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association vote to determine which player is awarded with this trophy, and the title of most valuable players in the NHL.
For the first half of the season, the race for such an honor has been between two stars of two different generations; current league-scoring leader and 2015 first overall pick Connor McDavid, and two-time Hart winner and 2005 first overall pick Sidney Crosby. However, two more names have surfaced in potential contention for the coveted honor, starting with San Jose defenseman Brent Burns and his gaudy scoring touch, and Minnesota’s outstanding goaltender Devan Dubnyk.
With 59 points, McDavid leads all skaters in the league in points while also helping a resurgent Edmonton team towards its first playoff appearance since 2006, when it made it to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals before falling to Carolina. Not far behind is Crosby with his 55 points, amongst that total is a league-leading 28 goals. More notably though, those totals have come despite missing the first six games of the season due to a concussion, therefore yielding him a higher points per game average.
With 51 points, Burns has the once-unthinkable chance of being the second defenseman ever to win the league scoring title, the only other being the iconic Bobby Orr, who won two Art Ross trophies in 1970 and 1975. Meanwhile Dubnyk is having a season rivaling the likes of Carey Price’s dominant Hart-winning 2015 season for goalies, boasting league-leading categories in goals against average, save percentage, and is second in wins while backstopping the Minnesota Wild to the Central Division lead.
Where it stacks up, I’ve ranked the candidates based on likelihood of them winning the Hart. Burns will need to keep up his scoring touch, and hope the two other forwards hit a significant slump or face unexpected injuries, although it is unlikely that would happen. His Sharks do hold the Pacific Division lead, though, which could help his case. Dubnyk, in any other season, pretty much would have this award in the bag. But what will be his downfall is one disadvantage that neither Crosby nor McDavid have: no casual hockey or sports fan outside of the State of Hockey has ever heard of him. He could have a tough time winning the support of writers holding the vote, especially if Crosby and McDavid keep up their hot pace.
Which leaves us with those two standouts. Recent history indicates that with enough attention from writers, the Art Ross winner will likely win the Hart as well, as it was the case with Patrick Kane last year. Leading a playoff contender will help his case too. In the end though, Crosby potentially has the best shot of what would be his third NHL MVP honor.
Aside from the aforementioned league leads in goals and points per game average, his reigning Stanley Cup champion Penguins are holding their own in the Metropolitan Division, featuring a breakout Columbus squad while also contending with hated rivals Washington, Philadelphia, and the New York Rangers. All five are all but certain locks for the playoffs come springtime, and for Crosby, that will be the deciding factor.