The Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov, the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and the Oilers’ Connor McDavid have been named the finalists for the 2024 Hart Trophy, per Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek.
When the final votes come out, this will likely be one of the closest ballots in recent memory. Out of the gate, there’s no clear favorite. Kucherov finds himself back among the finalists for the second time, winning his only previous nomination in 2019. He, along with McDavid, was the first player to reach 100 assists in a single season since Wayne Gretzky in 1990-91. Adding 44 goals, he took home the Art Ross Trophy with 144 points in 81 games. He also led the league in both assists and points when he won the Hart in 2019. Kucherov averaged 21:40 per game, a career-high at age 30. He also had 54 more points than Brayden Point, who finished second on the Lightning with 90.
MacKinnon becomes a Hart finalist for the fourth time (2018, 2020, 2021) but presents a much stronger case than in years past. He’s coming off a truly career-defining season, rattling off 51 goals, 89 assists and 140 points – all career-highs by a decent margin – while playing in all 82 games. He led the league with 405 shots on goal and averaged nearly 23 minutes per game, helping the Avs stay afloat while dealing with the lengthy absences of important secondary scorers like Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin.
McDavid earns his fourth straight nomination after a down year for him in the goal-scoring department. His 32 goals were his fewest in seven years, and he only managed 263 shots on goal after breaching 300 the past two years. But, like Kucherov, he was on another level in the assist department, totaling 132 points in 76 games. He’ll aim to take home the trophy for the fourth time in his career, although he’s arguably more of a dark horse this year compared to Kucherov and MacKinnon.
The Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews did not finish top three in Hart voting despite scoring 69 goals, the most in a single season since Mario Lemieux in 1996.
All 3 are deserving but I feel if McJesus was not hurt early in the season when the oil were terrible he would of had the scoring race and Hart wrapped up. KUCH is a lazy superstar that reads the play extremely well and my pick would be MacKinnon as he plays both ends of the ice soundly…
Reads the play extremely well while scoring a bunch of goals and setting up a bunch of others. This makes him a lazy superstar?
Exactly. I believe Lemieux was also lazy. It’s a terrible skill to be in the right place at the right time, all the time.
Where is Panarin?
Outside looking in. Four guys can’t make the final three. Where’s your case for him to move McDavid, Kucherov, or MacKinnon out?
Best player on the best team.
You still haven’t made a case to move any of the three finalists out. This is not the “Best player on the team with the most regular season points” award. Which player should be out in place of Panarin and why?
Kuch was on the top line and only a +8 on the ice. The other two were both over 30 and Panarin was +18. Can also make the case he wasn’t even in the top line and still dropped 120. 144 is impressive, but that’s where it begins and ends, and it showed in their record and eventually playoff performance.
Thanks for the excellent response. The other guy pretty much left it at “because the Rangers are my favorite team”, without saying it. My only pushback is that Kucherov put up his numbers on an inferior team. Had Panarin been the third finalist instead of him, I would not dispute it at all.
Guess goalies and defenders don’t help teams win anymore…
Can you provide an argument that would put a goalie or defenseman in place of the final three?
Kuch is the dude. He’s the second best hockey player in the world and should win the Hart very narrowly over Mackinnon. If he doesn’t win…number 1 bullshi*
Centers have to work a little harder and provide more value.
Just saying Kuch
Yes, which is why MacKinnon provided more value, +/- 35 compared to 8 and GWGs 9 to 6.