Kucherov Wins 2nd Hart Trophy by 10 Points Over McDavid
Updated
Updated · ESPN · Jun 11
Kucherov Wins 2nd Hart Trophy by 10 Points Over McDavid
3 articles · Updated · ESPN · Jun 11
Summary
1,436 voting points gave Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov his second Hart Trophy, just 10 ahead of Connor McDavid in the NHL's closest MVP race in decades.
72 first-place votes backed Kucherov after a 130-point season in 76 games, including 44 goals, 86 assists and an NHL-best 1.71 points per game.
McDavid finished with 1,426 points and 90 assists, while Nathan MacKinnon drew 1,297 points and 52 first-place votes; all three finalists cleared 25% of first-place ballots for the first time since 1995-96.
Tampa Bay's sweep of major honors widened with Andrei Vasilevskiy winning the Vezina and Jon Cooper the Jack Adams, the first such Hart-Vezina-coach trio from one club since 1976-77.
For Kucherov, 32, the award was his first since 2019 after finishing second and third in the past two years, making him the third player to wait at least seven years between Hart wins.