If Draisaitl is still ahead of McDavid in points, with a large goal lead, and in plus/minus by Game 60, I don't see how McDavid catches him for Hart consideration. And even if he did catch him, he likely doesn't get close to the Hart given how it was Drai doing the heavier lifting for most of the season.
2025 Hart Trophy Thread
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If Draisaitl is still ahead of McDavid in points, with a large goal lead, and in plus/minus by Game 60, I don't see how McDavid catches him for Hart consideration. And even if he did catch him, he likely doesn't get close to the Hart given how it was Drai doing the heavier lifting for most of the season.
Hughes is probably out with the missed games and while he won't win I'd throw Hellebuyck in the mix.
That being said with Meyers and soucy being the team top Dmen with injuries the same would apply to quite a few teams Top Dman right?
Video Nasty
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How is it a bit inflated? We’re speaking of a three time 50-55 goal scorer. He could win the Rocket by hitting 55-60.
Game 60 is closer to the end, so for sure where they're both at by game 60 is going to be more impactful than today at game 39. We'll see how it plays out.
It's not like I'm here saying McDavid will definitely win Ross/Hart. But - we know how great he is and how well he's done in the past, so it's only natural to consider him a strong contender this early in the year.
McDavid has also always been extremely good at closing out seasons. He usually scores a ton in the last ~20-30% of the season.
Sounding like he might be back a lot sooner than assumed, so still could end up playing 76-77 games. Though if he’s rushing back while not 100% he might not play well enough for it to matter.
I think the implication is that it’s a down year for the rest of the leaderboard and he expects others to pick it up. Right now, everyone else is pretty much in the mid-40s range for projections
Video Nasty
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Okay, that’s fair.
Who do we have faith in picking it up? The best current threat has sat out the past 5 games (Kaprizov). The old man who won’t go away missed 16 games (Ovechkin). Matthews has 12. Reinhart has gone too cold for too long and now needs 33 in the second half just to hit 55.
Draisaitl will hit 55. Point is really the only reasonable choice to notch 50 at this point since he still has 23 in 33 and already has a current drought of going scoreless in 4 straight and having 2 in his last 8 factored in, while the Lightning have played the fewest games in the league.
Yea it might be one of those years where the competition just doesn’t have great seasons. Other than Point, Kaprizov seems like the best bet if he comes back in the next couple games. He has 61 goals in his last 82 games going back to last year so he’s certainly capable of some impressive stretches.
Rantanen is a possibility as well. Had 55 a couple years ago and isn’t too far back as it stands. Though he’s shooting less this year and already has a high shooting percentage so it might be a long shot to improve in the second half. Connor has hit 47 before as well, and could be another outside shot. I wouldn’t entirely write off Pasta either. He does lead the league in shots and is capable of putting up huge numbers, but he’d need a pretty massive second half to do it with how far behind he is.
Goals are one of those things where there’s a lot more room for variance than points so there’s always the chance at some surprises
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Is MacKinnon even the Avs MVP over Makar? I feel like he has somewhat regressed from last season.
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