ESPN makes a case for why Sidney Crosby does not deserve to be named MVP.

Sidney Crosby does not deserve the Hart Trophy.That is what a recent article from ESPN is claiming, and honestly they do make a compelling case, one supported by some very interesting numbers.

Two statistics in particular have been used to reach this conclusion and we will be looking at both today, but first we will begin with "Presence." According to ESPN presence is used to measure a players offensive contribution relative to his team. This is achieved by taking the numbers of points recorded by a player in a season, and dividing it by the total points recorded by his team over the same season.

While Crosby remains in a heated race for the league lead in total scoring, when it comes to presence he doesn't even rank among the top 10. Two other candidates for the Hart Trophy however, Edmonton's Connor McDavid & Boston's Brad Marchand are first and second respectively.

From ESPN:

This is a result of Crosby's Penguins playing very well even when he is not on the ice, resulting in his overall contribution to the team's success being diminished. While it in no way takes away from the fact that he may still be the best player in the NHL, it does make a strong case that both Marchand and McDavid are more valuable to their individual teams overall.

You'll notice that third on the list is none other than Brent Burns, widely considered as another very strong candidate for the Hart. Another statistic also helps Burns' case over the other three we have previously mentioned, Individual Point Percentage or IPP.

IPP much like presence attempts to measure a player's overall offensive contribution to his team, it achieves this by measuring even strength points on the ice divided by even strength goals by the team while the player is on the ice.

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From ESPN:

IPP attempts to establish on whom the team relies for its scoring, at least at even strength. From this perspective, Burns leads defensemen with an IPP of 63.8, while McDavid ranks No. 13 among forwards with 82.8, and Crosby ranks No. 36 with 78.8, among those to play at least 500 minutes.

For those curious, Marchand ranks 39th among forwards in IPP. 

While you could certainly pick and choose statistics all day to make a case for one player or another, ESPN does make a decent case here, and at the very least it makes for interesting discussion.