Colorado Avalanche Nathan MacKinnon snubbed for Hart
mackinnon #mackinnon
Colorado Avalanche fans will be able to celebrate Cale Makar winning the Calder Memorial Trophy tonight, but it’ll be a little disappointing as it didn’t come next to a maiden Hart Trophy victory for Nathan MacKinnon. Leon Draisaitl took the Hart Trophy this year, along with the Ted Lindsay, despite being the second best player on his line all season.
MacKinnon finished second in voting, behind Draisaitl, but ahead of Artemi Panarin. MacKinnon was on 168 of the 170 total ballots (the two who left him off, I just want to talk). He got the majority of the second place votes and twice as many first place votes as Panarin.
The Hart Trophy announcement was reportedly leaked on the NHL’s official Finnish website, with an article about Leon Draisaitl’s win posted at 3pm MT. It was quickly taken down but speculation online quickly spread. I guess they got it right.
We wrote about MacKinnon’s chances of winning the awards during the pause in the season and why he deserved to win it. Even though the official voting closed before the playoffs began, MacKinnon only made his case for the award stronger with an MVP-calibre postseason that saw his team advance to the Conference Finals. The Avs bowed out to the Dallas Stars after significant injuries to several of their key players, including Erik Johnson and Philipp Grubauer.
The Oilers lost to Chicago in the Play-In along with Panarin’s Rangers in the East, never officially making the best-of-16 playoffs. Just sayin’.
The other winners from tonight are listed below:
Calder Memorial Trophy — Cale Makar
Ted Lindsay Award — Leon Draisaitl
Vezina Trophy — Connor Hellebuyck
Norris Memorial Trophy — Roman Josi