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The Hart Trophy is dumb.
There are trophies that have black and white rules. You score the most goals? You get the Rocket Richard Trophy. Score the most points? Art Ross. Then there are awards that are a little more subjective but still have strong rules to adhere to. If you’re a rookie who has scored a bunch of points and doing other remarkable things or a really good rookie goaltender you could win the Calder Trophy. If you have the most wins or best save percentage as a goalie you will probably win the Vezina.
Then there are the highly subjective ones where all the voters have very different beliefs. Does a coach deserve the Jack Adams because their goalie bailed them out of a bunch of games? How should the best defensive forward be defined and who should receive the Selke?
But there is no award I despise the wording of more than the Hart Trophy.
As defined by the NHL the Hart Trophy is; “an annual award given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team.”
Most valuable to his team. That is the wording that sparks anger and fury across the NHL as fans scream about why Player X deserves the trophy and Player Y doesn’t.
Auston Matthews has just scored 50 goals and is having an impressive season going 51-37-88 at this point of the season. On Sunday night, Leon Draisaitl scored his 50th goal of the season and has gone 50-51-101… and that isn’t even the highest on his team as Connor McDavid once again leads the NHL in points at 40-65-105.
This isn’t a blog about McDavid or Draisaitl vs Matthews. We could spend hours breaking down the intricacies of each of these players game. My point is when voting on the Hart, different voters seem to be voting off of different rules. Some are looking purely at points while others take EV scoring into account, while others look at the effect that their linemates had on their game.
The one argument I see so often, particularly a couple seasons ago when Draisaitl won the Hart was that he can’t be the most valuable player to his team because the Oilers have Connor McDavid. I don’t like that argument because it heavily undercuts what Leon does for Edmonton and in the 19/20 season, Leon was the best player on the Edmonton Oilers. The same argument could be applied for Matthews and Marner. Marner this season ranks 5th in the NHL in ppg at 1.37. Does that mean Matthews can't be most valuable to his team? It's a shallow argument. That being said, delving a bit deeper into that mindset could hold some value.
There is one player in the last decade that I think encapsulates everything that the Hart Trophy should be.
That was Taylor Hall in 2017/2018.
In 17/18 Taylor Hall put up 39 goals, 54 assists, and 93 points. That placed him 6th in scoring in the NHL. McDavid finished first that season with 108 points. That is a 15 point gap between the highest scoring player that season and the player that won the Hart Trophy. Why did Hall win it then? The simple answer is look who finished second on his team in scoring.
The next highest scoring player on the Devils that season was Nico Hischier. He had 52 points. Taylor Hall had 41 more points than the next best player on his own team. That right there is the best definition of most valuable to his team. Hall was on a level of his own compared to his teammates. That got me thinking to a subtle change to the Hart Trophy that would make it far better and one of the more unique award in sports.
Remember the original definition of the Hart:
“an annual award given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team.”
Here is a small change to the wording that would have interesting consequences:
“an annual award given to the player judged to be the most valuable
as compared to his team.”
We already have the Art Ross, Rocket, Vezina, Norris, and Selke Trophies to give to the best players at each position so why do we need to double up? Fun fact, every player who has won the Hart Trophy over the last decade also won one of the above mentioned awards in the same season… except for Taylor Hall.
Treat the Hart like the Masterton Trophy. For those not familiar, the Bill Masterton Trophy is awarded each year to the player who "best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey." Every team submits one player for this award and the PHWA votes on those candidates.
Under my changes to the Hart, each organization would submit one player who they believe excelled above any other player on their team. From there, the voters choose which player among all of those had the most impressive feat.
Here are just a few fun examples that could be made from this season:
Leon Draisaitl: Scored a team leading 20 powerplay goals (2nd in the NHL) the next highest player on the Oilers roster in PP goals had 8.
Josh Norris: Leads the Senators with 30 goals, 7 more than the next best player on that team despite missing 15 games this season. Norris has the 5th highest goals per 60 in the NHL this season.
Roman Josi: Leads the Predators in scoring as a defenseman with 81 points, 13 higher than the next best player and 54 points more than the next highest scoring defenseman.
Jared McCann: Has scored 25 goals this season, 9 more than the next highest scoring player on the team. Leads the team in PP goals with 8 (5 more than the next best) and EV goal scoring with 16.
Rasmus Dahlin: Leads all players in average ice time, averaging over 24 minutes a game and is third on the team in scoring with 28 points more than the next highest scoring defender.
Karel Vejmelka: In his first 43 games in the NHL has made the 14th most saves this season in the league nad a 0.916SV% at even strength.
Jack Hughes: 26 goal season in only 49 games after missing a month and a half at the start of the season due to injury.
Clayton Keller: 63 points in 67 games, scoring 15 points more than the next highest scoring player on his team.
Johnny Gaudreau: 34 primary assists this season at 5 on 5; 12 more than the next highest player on his team. Gaudreau leads the league in primary assists at even strength.
This could help the league in a number of ways. First off it eliminates the annoying yearly debate about the Hart Trophy. One other point we haven't discussed here is the Ted Lindsay award, which is the same as the Hart except voted by the players. Keep the Ted Lindsay. I would argue among players that the recognition of being the best player that season as awarded by your peers means far more than an award given by a bunch of reporters.
More important than eliminating the debate however, would be creating an award that would promote great players around the league that don't get nearly enough time in the spotlight. I'm willing to bet many of those reading this blog didn't know that Gaudreau leads the league in primary assists at 5 on 5 or that Norris was one of the best goal scorers in the NHL this season. Both of these are Canadian market examples but add to that list teams like Seattle, Dallas, Buffalo, and Arizona. These are teams that are not promoted to the general public like the Tampa's, Toronto's, and Pittsburgh's of the league.
One of the greatest weaknesses of the NHL has always been that it has no idea how to promote it's individual players. Under this change, each team would have a chance to highlight one of their own great players for all the NHL and it's fans to see.
At the end of the day, a player like Auston Matthews or Connor McDavid could still win this award under these new rules but if it causes someone to pay a bit more attention to Jack Hughes or turn on a Senators game to watch Josh Norris than I would argue that still makes it worthwhile.
Follow me on Twitter @SMaloughney
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