Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning deserves to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player this season.
The beautiful thing about making that kind of declarative statement about the 2023-24 MVP race? This might be the most “no wrong answers” Hart Trophy debate in recent memory.
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Does Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon have an MVP case after a season of establishing career benchmarks and multiple point-per-game streaks and wowing us with his full-throttle skating? Absolutely.
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Does Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews have a case after posting the highest single-season goal total since 1992-93 and leading the team with his 200-foot game? Absolutely.
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Does Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid have a case after becoming only the fourth player in NHL history to tally 100 assists in a season, and resurrecting his team after a disastrous start? Absolutely.
Forwards Artemi Panarin (New York Rangers) and David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins) have cases. So do defensemen Roman Josi (Nashville Predators) and Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks). So does Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, although he’d have to overcome the annual “goalies have their own award” and “a goalie could win MVP every season” biases from voters.
A member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association could cast a vote for any of these players and it would be viewed as reasonable, no matter how much social media shaming arrives from the other candidates’ constituencies. Again, there aren’t any real “wrong answers” this season in the MVP race.
But Nikita Kucherov is the most correct one.
KUCHEROV ENTERS THE final game of the Lightning’s season at home against the Maple Leafs with 142 points in 80 games, putting him in position to win the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top point producer for the second time. His previous win was in 2018-19 with 128 points, the same season he won his first and only Hart Trophy.
Among the players on that particular Lightning team: J.T. Miller, Yanni Gourde, Ryan McDonagh, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn and Tyler Johnson. Through trades, cap constraints and the expansion draft, the Lightning lost much of that stellar supporting cast — the backbone of Stanley Cup wins in 2020 and 2021. This Lightning squad had by far the shallowest depth of any under coach Jon Cooper. It got even shallower when defenseman Mikhail Sergachev went out with a…
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