Draisaitl, Panarin and MacKinnon nominated for Hart Trophy

Who deserves the title of the NHL’s MVP?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Draisaitl, Panarin and MacKinnon nominated for Hart Trophy
NHL.com

This just in, the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PWHA) has named its three nominees for the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2019-20 season.

Check it out:


2020 Hart Trophy finalists, as voted by The PHWA: Leon Draisaitl (EDM), Nathan MacKinnon (COL) and Artemi Panarin (NYR). 

Interestingly enough, these are the same three candidates that the NHLPA members voted for the Ted Lindsay Award (Formerly the Lester B. Pearson Award) earlier this month.

Three incredible players all deserving of recognition, no doubt.

No real big surprises here though, right? Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak is someone else who you have to imagine received votes, as well. Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck was a darkhorse candidate who likely received some consideration, but not enough to bump any of the top three.

With that being said, I could honestly see any of these three guys take home the hardware at the NHL Awards later this summer. Draisaitl is the NHL’s leading point producer and, frankly, surpassed superstar teammate Connor McDavid this season in terms of his value to the Oilers. Pretty remarkable if you stop to think about it. Draisaitl had 13 more points than anyone else in the NHL this season and 15 points more than anyone else not named "McDavid". Again... it's pretty incredible if you stop to think about it. Draisaitl's production is even more impressive than Nikita Kucherov's Hart Trophy winning performance last season. 

MacKinnon is an absolute horse and he more or less dragged an injury riddled Avs team into Stanley Cup contention on his own. Once linemates Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog returned to the Avs’ lineup, MacKinnon went absolutely ballistic and scored highlight reel goals almost at will.

Panarin, in his first season with the Rangers, delivered everything that Rangers fans hoped for and more. The prize free agent potted an incredible 95 points playing mostly on a line with Jesper Fast and Ryan Strome. Now, let’s be real… Fast and Strome are capable NHLers, but they’re not exactly McDavid, Rantanen or Landeskog. It’s fair to say that Panarin did more “heavy lifting” than his other two Ted Lindsay nominees.

So… who takes it?