Over the past couple weeks the NHL has been releasing the finalists for its end of season awards. The Jackets have many players who have been named finalists for these awards but they haven’t been discussed here since they were all expected.

The Hart Trophy though is different from the other awards. Sergei Bobrovsky started to get some hype for this award late in the season, but it wasn’t the same as some of the other Jackets players for their awards. It was a deep rookie class but it was clear Zach Werenski stood out and would be a finalist for the Calder. John Tortorella was a shoe-in for the Jack Adams, as was Bobrovksy for the Vezina. Nick Foligno in the running for the Mark Messier Leadership Award is somewhat surprising, but no one really knows how that award is decided upon. Bobrovsky becomes the first player in Blue Jackets history to be nominated for the Hart.

More history made.

Sergei Bobrovsky is the first player in #CBJ history to be named a Hart Trophy finalist: https://t.co/S9PGRBCwT1

— ColumbusBlueJackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) May 1, 2017

The Hart Trophy is awarded to the player viewed as the most valuable to his team. The other two finalist for the award are Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, so Bobrovsky will be in tough. The award has been handed out annually since the 1923-24 season and goal-tenders have won the award just eight times. Most recently Carey Price won it in 2014-15, but before him you have to go back to 2001-02 to when Jose Theodore took home the honour.

This is a tough award to know who is going to win because there are so many differing opinions of what valuable means. If you think about a goalie could win this award every season as they are the only player who singlehandedly can win team games. Most people though don’t have that opinion as we hardly ever see a goalie win. If you remove Bobrovsky from the Jackets they are certainly not making the playoffs, he kept them in so many games, and got them so many extra points throughout the season. The same can be said for McDavid, he elevated everyone he played with and without him the Oilers would have surely missed the playoffs. Without Crosby, Pittsburgh still has a very good team, but Crosby pushes them to a whole new level.

Each player is incredibly valuable in their own right. Until hockey gets a universal WAR metric like there is in baseball it will be difficult to use stats to compare the impact of goalies vs. skaters. Bobrovsky was the best goalie in the league this season and McDavid and Crosby were the two best skaters.

Personally I think McDavid is going to win it. He took the Oilers from the basement of the league to one of the better teams in the West. He led the NHL in points as the only player to hit 100. He had an incredible 11 point lead over Sidney Crosby who finished tied for second with 89 points. I think Bobrovksy will finish second as he was easily the best goalie in the league. He was the only qualified goalie to finish above a .930 save percentage, coming in at .931. He led the league is goals against average and finished tied for third with seven shutouts.

Regardless of who wins the award, this was a tremendous season for the Blue Jackets and it’s great to see their players getting some league wide recognition for it.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot

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