The Race for the 2018 Hart Trophy

8 Great Choices – But Only 1 Can Be MVP

With the NHL regular season now at an end, I think we can all agree it has been one of the best in recent memory. If the brilliant debut of the Las Vegas Golden Knights wasn’t enough, maybe it was the play of breakout stars, Andrei Vasilevskiy or Brayden Point. But, the NHL is a stars league, and it is always at its best when its stars are shining bright. And this season is a prime example. When superstar Sidney Crosby is playing up to his expectations and is 10th in the league in scoring, you know the league is firing on all cylinders.

It felt as though this year, all of the big stars were playing their best. So that leaves one question: who is most deserving of the Hart Trophy as the league’s regular-season MVP? The award is always contentious because of the letter“V,” for valuable, in MVP. But I’m not here to try and define value and who should win; I’m here to show that this is one of the most exciting Hart Trophy races in my lifetime. There are arguably eight players,  forwards in particular, that have a legitimate chance to win the award this year. Eight forwards who have arguably been more valuable to their team than anyone else. That is the important caveat: a player’s team success is almost always included in their chances at winning the award, so I will take that under consideration. Here are the reasons why, and why not, these eight are in contention for the NHL’s top individual honor.

Continue reading “The Race for the 2018 Hart Trophy”

Puck Junk Podcast #6 – July 1, 2015


Player not working? Listen to the podcast on SoundClloud.

Podcast #6 is way overdue, but Tim (@TheRealDFG) and Sal (@PuckJunk) finally get around to talking about the end of the 2014-15 season. This week’s topics are:

  • The Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup Championship and Duncan Keith winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP (0:01 to 7:07)
  • The 2015 NHL Awards, including discussion about the Masterton, Lady Byng and Messier Award winners (7:08 to 22:30 — we reference this article here)
  • The 2015 NHL Draft — why it was (or wasn’t) worth watching (22:31 to 42:00)

Total time is 42 minutes, so hit play, make yourself a sandwich and enjoy!


PODCAST INTRO AND ENDING MUSIC CREDITS:

“Iron Bacon” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/