2025 Hart Trophy Thread

[Chukcha]

after that outrageous hit on Tkachuk Kuch is definitely out of Hart discussion.

 

[McFlash97]

Draisaitl is winning the Hart. Doesn't matter what McDavid does.

His 2 way game is leagues better than anyone in the top 4 right now, he is at the moment running away with the Rocket, he is pacing to set a league record for game winning goals and plays on a line up Podkolzin and Kapanen/Arvidsson for majority of the season. It's Drai for me.

 

[benfranklin]

Draisaitl is winning the Hart. Doesn't matter what McDavid does.

His 2 way game is leagues better than anyone in the top 4 right now, he is at the moment running away with the Rocket, he is pacing to set a league record for game winning goals and plays on a line up Podkolzin and Kapanen/Arvidsson for majority of the season. It's Drai for me.

Vegas still has McDavid. Interesting they arent even giving Draisaitl a chance. Sadly theyre always right about this stuff somehow.

 

[Tralfamadore]

It's too tough for me to pick 3 out of these 6 right now.

Kucherov
Hughes
Drai
Helle
MacKinnon
Kaprizov

Depending on how many games he misses Hughes might get bumped.

 

[hamzarocks]

Draisaitl is winning the Hart. Doesn't matter what McDavid does.

His 2 way game is leagues better than anyone in the top 4 right now, he is at the moment running away with the Rocket, he is pacing to set a league record for game winning goals and plays on a line up Podkolzin and Kapanen/Arvidsson for majority of the season. It's Drai for me.

Draisaitl needs to pick up the production to get a sure fire hart.

He has 6 pts in last 5 games and is bascially only getting 1 pt a game.

On pace for 123 pts vs 139 for Mackinnon for 82 gamr paces.

He gets the gap within single digits and I could see him winning the hart assuming he wins the rocket.

Similar to Matthews hart win in 2022 when he paced for 119 pts in 82 games vs Mcdavids 126 pt in 82 game pace and won the rocket heavily.

If Draisaitl gets the gap down a bit I could see him getting the hart.

Mackinnon, Mcdavid, Kuch, Draisaitl, Helleybuck are proh top 5 candidates at the moment

Q Hughes, Makar, Eichel and Kaprizov make next tier

Edit: Mackinnon is on pace for 134 and not 139 so the gap is only 11 pts. Draisaitl could be the hart winner as of today but its early and got to see how everyone performs second half of the year

 

[McFlash97]

Vegas still has McDavid. Interesting they arent even giving Draisaitl a chance. Sadly theyre always right about this stuff somehow.

Take a shower bro. Relax. Draisaitl at this rate will win it running away unless he slows down

 

[Regal]

The OP is asking who right now. McDavid would not be in the running as Draisaitl has had the better season so far.

Among forwards:

Mac
Draisaitl
Kucherov/Kaprizov

Nowhere does it say that it’s asking for who the Hart winner is today, it asks what we think regarding the award halfway through the year. And I also said that I believe Kaprizov and Hughes are my current top two, but that they wouldn’t be the winners today because of how the award is voted, and that Draisaitl has been the best forward (he’d be my #3) so far but that he’ll always be in tough to win with McDavid.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Hutson

 

[Regal]

Take a shower bro. Relax. Draisaitl at this rate will win it running away unless he slows down

If things end up exactly how they’re pacing now, he might win but it’s unlikely it’d be by a lot. I think he’s been better than MacKinnon but voters still tend to defer to the Art Ross a lot and I’ve heard a lot more chatter in the media about MacKinnon and before that Kaprizov than I have about Draisaitl

It's too tough for me to pick 3 out of these 6 right now.

Kucherov
Hughes
Drai
Helle
MacKinnon
Kaprizov

Depending on how many games he misses Hughes might get bumped.

That’s kind of how I feel. It’s a bunched up race in my mind unlike a lot of years.

 

[benfranklin]

Take a shower bro. Relax. Draisaitl at this rate will win it running away unless he slows down

7 points back
4 es points back
21 assists back
Shooting an insane 24.1 which will come down while Macs 9.3 will go up.

He might get the Rocket but thats about it. McDavid will pass him in points most likely too.

 

[jiggy35]

Helle
Hughes
Kaprizov

All those teams are bubble teams without those guys.

 

[benfranklin]

Helle
Hughes
Kaprizov

All those teams are bubble teams without those guys.

Youre taking common sense into the voting. That isnt allowed!

The voting process is simple. Art Ross winner gets it unless its close then we give it to the best looking.

 

[BertMcDrai]

One of Drai/Kuch/Kaprizov and also Helle or Hughes/Eichel would be a good pick this year.

I do not get the MacKinnon love to be honest, he's is riding an insane empty net points horse atm which is the main reason he is leading in points and seems to score no goals at all and doesn't separate himself enough from Rantanen and Makar in points.
I think last year he was way better.
But when he separates more in points from the pack unfortunately they will vote him.
It's still a long season to go and everything could happen.
I think Drai is having a career year so far and is leading in lots of important box scores (goals , GWG, ES goals and is having the best defensive season (he is Top 5 in +/- and up there in Faceoffs) of all MVP caliber forwards (maybe with Kaprizov there as well).
I know McD is there point wise as well but he is nowhere as good as Drai this here.

 

[TS Quint]

It should go to the best goalie in the world. Just about every person on this site that are fans of other teams when (if) they think of the Jets think they would be nothing without him.

Quinn would be considered 2nd but he's just leading them to a WC spot instead of a top 5 pick.

 

[TS Quint]

Helle
Hughes
Kaprizov

All those teams are bubble teams without those guys.

The Canucks are a bubble team.

 

[McPoyle]

Draisaitl is the frontrunner right now. Most goals by a wide margin, most points scored on a goalie, playing excellent defensive hockey. Q. Hughes and Hellebucyk other contenders.

 

[Gnome17]

Easily Mackinnon as of today. A lot of season left though obviosly.

How do you figure that? empty-net points excluded Draisaitl has as many or more points, and he has Twice the amount of goals as Mack, not to mention hes in the selke conversation. Its easily Draisaitl right now.

 

[McPoyle]

Shooting an insane 24.1 which will come down while Macs 9.3 will go up.

Drai has been shooting 20% + for 7 years now. While Mack has always been around a 10-11% shooter. Both should regress some, but not to a huge extent as you are implying.

 

[Szechwan]

In terms of pure importance to their team, hard not to go with Hughes. This chart is bananas. View attachment 955901

That's the one I was talking about, thanks.

I don't know how you can argue for anyone other than Hughes after seeing this, a single player taking a team from lotto to contender is unbelievable.

 

[WPGDEVILS]

Helle is having a more impressive Hart season than Price. With no regression it’s gotta go to him. Better stats in a higher scoring NHL and he is clearing the field

 

[strattonius]

The empty net points argument doesn't really land for me.

If you're nabbing empty net points that means you're trusted to close out games defensively and you're on a team that is often winning.

Not saying empty net points are impressive but when people split hairs that a player had 3 more empty net points or whatever I mostly disregard that point.

 

[JoeSakic13]

I’m in the camp that the Hart doesn’t go to the definition “most important to his team’s success” as Kuch would have won it last year.

Also there’s likely the storyline aspect that weighs into their vote. MacKinnon was owed an MVP win after being (arguably) getting screwed out of 2018 Hart because of Hall.

So with that I would say on the current pace it’s Drai’s trophy to lose.

 

[BertMcDrai]

The empty net points argument doesn't really land for me.

If you're nabbing empty net points that means you're trusted to close out games defensively and you're on a team that is often winning.

Not saying empty net points are impressive but when people split hairs that a player had 3 more empty net points or whatever I mostly disregard that point.

Nobody is talking about 3 empty net points...he is on pace for hitting historical numbers...and as someone who has to deal with all this Oilers players are only PP merchants s*it over the last years it's laughable that empty net points are somehow more valuable than PP points because it doesn't fit their narratives anymore.

That's the reason while the empty net points are popping up in those threads....it's because of the double standards on here.

 

[Regal]

Nobody is talking about 3 empty net points...he is on pace for hitting historical numbers...and as someone who has to deal with all this Oilers players are only PP merchants s*it over the last years it's laughable that empty net points are somehow more valuable than PP points because it doesn't fit their narratives anymore.

That's the reason while the empty net points are popping up in those threads....it's because of the double standards on here.

Yea, when there’s that many empty net points, I think it starts to matter. 11 of 64 points is 17% of his totals! And as much as empty net play is important (as a Canucks fan, the team just gave up two multi-goal leads against an empty net in their last 4 games), there’s also a lot of variance in terms of opportunities.

 

[TS Quint]

That's the one I was talking about, thanks.

I don't know how you can argue for anyone other than Hughes after seeing this, a single player taking a team from lotto to contender is unbelievable.

Contender to maybe make the playoffs? I agree Quinn is great. Hronek probably owes about $3.5m/year to him. But Quinn has only dragged that team to mid.