The NHL’s Hart Memorial Trophy Has Become a Two-Horse Race. The Only Problem? It’s The Wrong Two Horses

The NHL’s Hart Memorial Trophy Has Become a Two-Horse Race. The Only Problem? It’s The Wrong Two Horses

Mar 31, 2022 4:00 PM MST

By Dexter Zinman

“The Hart Memorial Trophy is an annual award given ‘to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.’”

This is the official wording from NHL.com describing the general criteria for awarding the Hart Memorial Trophy. For all intents and purposes, this is the National Hockey League’s MVP award. Voting for the award is rarely unanimous. It takes something truly historic, like Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid’s 105 points in 56 games last season, for every single voter to agree.

So how do you pick?

This player is on pace to have the single greatest goal scoring season in the history of his 105 year old franchise.

Well this goalie is having a season comparable to 1972 Tony Esposito and 1999 Dominik Hasek.

So how do you pick?

Throughout the 2021-22 NHL season, the race for the Hart Trophy has been dominated by two players, Toronto Maple Leafs center and current league goal scoring Auston Matthews, and New York Rangers Goaltender Igor Shesterkin, the current favorite for the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender.

Podcasts, articles, comments on broadcasts and tweet threads, even NHL.com’s trophy tracker blog series all have these two at the top.

Both have had fantastic seasons. Per The Athletic’s NHL Player cards, Matthews is scoring at a 66 goal pace over a full season. He’s unlikely to actually score that many, as he’s missed time due to injury, but his current stats of 49 goals with 16 games left makes it very likely he’ll beat Rick Vaive’s franchise record of 54 goals in a single season, set back in 1981-82.

Igor Shesterkin’s 0.936 save percentage (SV%) and 2.11 goals against average (GAA) in 44 games played, as stated earlier, is extremely comparable to prime, Vezina Trophy worthy seasons of two Hall of Famers. 1971-72 Tony Esposito had a 0.934 SV% and 1.77 GAA in 48 games, while 1998-99 Dominik Hasek had a 0.937 SV% and a 1.87 GAA in 64 games. Shesterkin is arguably having a better season than Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price did in 2014-15, where he has a 1.96 GAA and 0.933 SV% and won The Hart Trophy.

So how do you pick?

Well you can start by not picking either of them. Yes, the Hart Trophy race is a two-horse race, but the two horses aren’t named Matthews and Igor, they’re named Johnny Hockey and Hooby Dooby Doo.

Florida Panthers Winger Jonathan Huberdeau and Calgary Flames Center Johnny Gaudreau should be the real front-runners for the Hart Memorial Trophy. Both are having fantastic seasons in their own right as well, but what better way to look at how valuable they are to their teams by looking at team success.

Huberdeau’s Panthers are the top team in the Atlantic Division, while Gaudreau’s Flames sit atop the Pacific Division. They’re both essentially locks for home ice advantage in the playoffs. But beyond standings, Huberdeau and Gaudreau have made their teams deeper. They have both helped make more players genuine scoring threats.

24 players have scored at least 30 goals in the NHL so far this season. The Calgary Flames have four of them, Elias Lindholm (34 goals), Matthew Tkachuk (32), Andrew Mangiapane (30) and Gaudreau himself (30). That’s the most 30-goal scorers on a single team in the league.

Similarly, the Florida Panthers currently lead the league in 20-goal scorers with six. Aleksander Barkov leads them in goals with 29, followed by Sam Bennett (26), Anthony Duclair (26), Sam Reinhart (24), Huberdeau (23), and Carter Verhaeghe (21). No other team has that many.

Johnny Gaudreau’s 60 assists puts him first on the Flames and 5th in the entire league. His 90 points are good for 4th best league-wide as well. Huberdeau’s 70 assists are the most in the entire league, and his 93 points put him in 3rd place on the overall scoring list.

They are the two best set-up men on the teams with the most 30-goal and 20-goal scorers respectively. Two of the deepest teams have these pass machines fueling their offensive engines.

When talking about who is most valuable to their team, not just as an individual player, team depth is an important, and sometimes misused metric. But it tells an incredible story.