Lately there's been a lot of discussion about whether a player should have to play for a playoff team in order to be seriously considered for the Hart Trophy. In this edition of the hotstove, we share our thoughts on that debate.
Todd Cordell
It's a nice bonus to make the playoffs but I don't think it should be mandatory.
Most would agree Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, Taylor Hall, and Nathan MacKinnon are having the best seasons in the NHL this year.
McDavid doesn't play for a playoff team. MacKinnon currently doesn't play for a playoff team. Hall *barely* plays for a playoff team. Kucherov plays for a top seed.
Does that mean if the Devils and/or Avs miss out, only Kucherov is the only legitimate candidate of the bunch? If so, that's absurd.
In McDavid's case, for example, his team is well out of the race. I don't know what more he could have possibly done to change that, though.
With McDavid on the ice at 5v5, the Oilers have out-scored opponents 78-56. That's a 58.2 Goals For%.
Without McDavid on the ice at 5v5, the Oilers have been out-scored 109-79. That's a 42.0 Goals For%.
So, with McDavid the Oilers have a better GF% than the Lightning (57.05%). Without McDavid, they have a worse GF% than all but the Sabres (41.00%). That seems pretty valuable.
But he can't be considered because the team's depth guys get caved in and their goaltending has been awful? That's not right.
If you can't decide between a few candidates and give the edge to one who makes the playoffs, that's fine. If you ignore McDavid and potentially both of MacKinnon/Hall because the rest of their teammates didn't give them enough help, that's indefensible.
Matt Henderson As a general rule, no your team should not have to make the Playoffs for you to win the Hart. The Hart is an individual award and team success should play some part in it, but making the playoffs is an arbitrary cut off.
I'll use the example of Connor McDavid. As of writing this, the Oilers are 23rd in the NHL with 74 points. They aren't making the playoffs. However, without Connor McDavid I fully believe that the team would be 31st. The team is 31st on the PP and 28th on the PK and Cam Talbot is 42nd in Sv% in the NHL (min 20 games). McDavid factors into the highest percentage of offense in the league and when he fails to score the Oilers have won just 18% of their games.
So he has dragged what is basically an AHL team into 23rd. From dead last to 23rd place is 8 places in the standings. He has 12 more 5v5 points than 2nd place in the league and he's having a statistically better season than last year when he was the landslide winner for the Hart.
He has gotten better, is still heads and tails better than the rest of the NHL, and somehow his value has dropped? Ridiculous. Find me someone who is single-handedly dragging their team up more than 8 places in the standings and I'll vote for that guy. I'll vote for him whether his team is making the playoffs or not.
James Tanner Absolutely not. I think this is, without a doubt, the stupidest narrative in hockey. Let's say the four main MVP candidates are Hall, Kucherov, McDavid and MackInnon. We could very easily be in a situation where only one of those guys makes the Playoffs. Are Mackinnon and Hall suddenly not good enough if they miss the playoffs by 1 point? That's idiotic.
What about the fact that Kucherov plays with Stamkos? Guys shouldn't be penalized for having a quality linemate, but McDavid played the most with Patrick Maroon. If Maroon is your Stamkos, and you still do better than the only MVP candidate to be guaranteed to make the playoffs, you're the MVP.
The 'Hart Trophy must go to a player in the playoffs' is such a lousy argument because hockey is a team game. If McDavid isn't an automatic ticket to the playoffs, then clearly hockey is a game where one single player can't make that large of an impact, which means that holding that player accountable for his team's lack of success is unfair and wrong.
The MVP is an individual award, not a team award. Withholding the award from the clearly dominant player just because Peter Chiarelli and some bad luck conspired against him doesn't follow any logic.
To say the MVP has to make the playoffs is a cheap and lazy cop-out. If there were two equal candidates, it might be a good tie breaker, however, in this case, Connor McDavid is so clearly the best player in the NHL, by such a wide margin, that if denying him the award would forever ruin the already brutal reputation of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
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