Nathan MacKinnon was deserving of the NHL’s Hart Trophy

Throughout the course of the NHL’s history, there have been numerous players who have stood out, but have been unable to be recognized with considerable hardware.

For the first 10 seasons of his career, Nathan MacKinnon has been widely regarded as one of the best players in the game. However, due to playing in an era of Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov and Sidney Crosby, he has never been in the conversation to win the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player, despite being a big-time player in helping Colorado win the franchise’s third Stanley Cup in 2022.

That changed this season, as the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native proved he was a vital piece in his team’s success. On Thursday night at the NHL Awards, MacKinnon won the Hart Trophy for the first time in his career, beating out Kucherov and McDavid for the league’s top individual accolade.

MacKinnon also won the Ted Lindsay Award as the best player in the NHL, as voted on by his peers.

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talk about why MacKinnon was so deserving of the Hart Trophy.

Tyler Yaremchuk: MacKinnon–deserving MVP? Or narrative-fueled?

Frank Seravalli: Deserving, but I think he receives a healthy bit of fuel from the way he plays. He’s in your face, he’s a force of nature, he will bowl you over…I was surprised how lopsided it was for first-place votes. I think MacKinnon had 152 out of 194 first-place votes. I looked at my ballot, and I looked at the ballot of other people, and I thought, “Hmm, that’s interesting.” This was a Hart race that I thought was so much closer than the final tally ended up being. That’s not take anything away from MacKinnon.

You can watch the full segment, and the entire episode here…