NHL Award Front Runners and Predictions

The NHL regular season is winding down, leading to the conversation of individual player awards, and the front runners who are deserving. This season has been a real fun one to watch as a fan, and the talent seems to consistently be getting better league-wide. This season has brought out some new flourishing faces in the award race. The Hart trophy might be a predictable one in this article, but a few categories might have an argument for an “I didn’t see that coming”.

The Hart Trophy

As expected, Connor McDavid is the front runner for the Hart trophy with 54 goals, and 70 assists, good for 124 total points. In 65 games-played that is certainly worthy of being the most valuable player in the NHL. I’d say if you eliminated McDavid, the Hart would have to go to someone like Jason Robertson, or Matthew Tkachuk who both have at least 80 points this season. It just wouldn’t make sense to not give the Hart trophy to McDavid, who continues to just wow the masses with his fluid skating, and dazzling puck skills.

The Vezina

With slightly more competition than the Hart, I personally think there is a clear-cut winner here in Linus Ullmark. I know the Athletic recently released an updated analytics rankings with him in the number two spot behind Ilya Sorokin, but I just don’t see that happening. On top of having the league-leading save-percentage in the NHL at 1.89, he has 32 wins already, with only four regulation losses. It just seems as though they are punishing him for having less games-played, which is a bit dramatic, in my opinion. Ullmark should lock the vezina up when it comes to the real voters.

The Norris

Another Bruins player should be strongly considered for this award, being Hampus Lindholm, who has really had a spectacular season in the black and gold with 7 goals, and 34 assists. However, the front runner for the award is certainly Adam Fox, who has 10 goals, and 47 assists on the year, totaling 57 points. With the Bruins having so much star power on the back end, it’s probably safe to say they will give Fox the award. Even Brent Burns has 50 points on the NHL season, making him a fringe candidate as well, and part of the conversation. Regardless, my prediction stands and I think Fox walks away with the Norris trophy.

The Selke

Are you tired of hearing Bruins players’ names yet? Well, that’s too bad because the front runner for this award is none other than record setting, five-time Selke winner Patrice Bergeron. HIs competition seems to be Mikael Backlund and Jordan Staal when it comes to debating the winner. I think there’s a possibility of some voter fatigue here, and Bergeron getting overlooked on the award, but I do think he deserves it once again. It’s even more impressive when you look at his age, to be 37 playing at such a high level. It’s certainly up for grabs, and one of the more judgemental awards compared the the other 3 major categories above, so we will see!

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