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Three of the top players in the NHL were voted as the finalists for this season’s Hart Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the league’s MVP.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid, Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov and Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon are in the running for this year’s hardware:
Frank Seravalli @frank_seravalli
2024 Hart Trophy finalists, as voted by @ThePHWA: Nikita Kucherov (TBL), Nathan MacKinnon (COL) and Connor McDavid (EDM). pic.twitter.com/DjRqReARw1
McDavid is the defending Hart Trophy winner and a three-time recipient of the award. Kucherov also won the award during the 2018-19 season. MacKinnon is seeking his first win after earning a spot as a finalist for the fourth time, per ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.
McDavid is attempting to become the first back-to-back winner since Alex Ovechkin in 2008 and 2009. He led Edmonton with 100 assists and 132 points, the latter of which ranked third in the league. He overcame a slow start to the season and recorded 122 points over the final 65 games after the Oilers parted ways with head coach Jay Woodcroft and replaced him with Kris Knoblauch.
Kucherov joined McDavid in recording 100 assists this season, making them the only players besides Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr to achieve the feat. Kucherov also added a career-high 44 goals, and his league-high 144 points earned him his second Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer.
MacKinnon was right behind Kucherov with 140 points, recording career highs of 51 goals and 89 assists this season. He had a streak of 35 straight home games with a point, the second-longest home points streak in NHL history behind Gretzky’s record 40-game streak. He also had a 19-game points streak later in the season, making him the first player in NHL history to have two separate points streaks of at least 19 games in a single season.
MacKinnon is hoping that will be enough to break through this year after he finished second in the voting for the Hart Trophy in 2018 and 2020 and third in 2021.
