Will Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov win another Hart Trophy?

The Hart Trophy winner was announced last week, with the award going to Winnipeg Jets goaltender Conner Hellebuyck, the first time a goaltender has won the award since Carey Price in 2015. But it also meant that after a second straight season where Nikita Kucherov put up MVP-level numbers and helped a degrading Tampa Bay Lightning lineup into the playoffs, the Russian winger did not win the Hart, even though he did win the Ted Lindsay award.

So if Kucherov’s season wasn’t worthy of a Hart Trophy, will he win one again in his NHL career? Frank Seravalli talked about Kucherov’s Hart Trophy chances going forward, as well as the discrepancy in his value with the players and the media, on Daily Faceoff Live.

Frank Seravalli: [Kucherov is] such a special player. Yes, he’s starting to get a little bit older. Yes, the team in Tampa seems to be deteriorating, at least a little bit. I think they’re on the down-slope as opposed to the up-slope.

But I think it’s really interesting, and this debate sort of ignited on social media again over the weekend, which is the way the media views players and the way that players view players. It’s not lost on anyone that the Ted Lindsay gets awarded to Nikita Kucherov, as voted by his peers. They think he’s the most outstanding player in the world this season. Also interesting was that their player poll came out at some point this year, and Connor Hellebuyck was not picked by the players as the best goalie in the league. That would be Andrei Vasilevskiy.

So you see this disparity, and although two entirely different awards, most-valuable player and most-outstanding player, but nonetheless, a discrepancy, and it does raise the question. What if a different entity were voting on the awards, whether it be management or a selected panel by the NHL or whoever? Obviously not advocating for that as President of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, I think we get it right consistently, but it is interesting to see that different voting panels view it differently.

You can watch the full episode here…