Hart Trophy Curse

[Toby91ca]

I wasn't aware of this, but my son mentioned it today....actually referred to it as the Hart Trophy curse and I asked what he was talking about. No Hart trophy winner has made it past the 2nd round of the playoffs since the 2004/05 lockout. Interestingly, the 2003/04 winner (St. Louis) won the cup.

I wonder if it's just a coincidence or if the odds are stacked against those guys. No one outside the playoffs is going to win the Hart...so that already gives them an obvious advantage in advancing past 2nd round. That said, generally, voters seem to like guys that dominate their team....having superstar teammates sometimes split the vote....not always, sometimes there is simply an obvious guy that should win regardless, but 2009 - OV deserved and who win anyway, but I'm sure Malkin would have gotten more votes if Crosby wasn't on his team, 2011 - Perry...Sedin and St. Louis probably would have gotten more votes, 2018 - Hall (obvious one). Maybe it doesn't matter as a lot of years the winner has at least 1 superstar teammate as well (but perhaps that helps to get them to where they are in the scoring list. I think the voters consider this stuff though.

They need to be on a team that is good enough, but generally not the best team. Maybe it's because scoring tends to be spread out a bit when you are on a team filled with star players....if you want to lead the league in scoring, it's nice to have some really good players to help, but not too many where the scoring gets spread around. If you look at the years since that lockout, the Hart winner's team only finished in the top 3 of the league in regular season 2 times (Montreal in 2nd in 2015 and Tampa in 1st in 2019). 7 times the team didn't even finish top 10.

Anyway, interesting results and perhaps calling it a curse is strange too because we don't know who the winner is before the cup is awarded.

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[Barrie22]

Interesting

 

[Mr Kot]

Fascinating

 

[NVious]

That's why someone like Jonathan Toews never won it, it's a loser trophy for players without intangibles performing at irrelevant times.

 

[Toby91ca]

That's why someone like Jonathan Toews never won it, it's a loser trophy for players without intangibles performing at irrelevant times.

So true

 

[Chet Manley]

It's a best player on their team trophy. Not surprised by that being pretty meaningless.

 

[Randyne]

Shut down a MVP in the PO and win.

 

[catnip]

Nah, their teams have been to the finals and won cups - just not in the years the player won the Hart. I kind of doubt everyone just magically found the hidden intangibles within themselves one year, won the Stanley Cup, and then reverted back to their stat-padding tangible selves.

 

[hangman005]

I hope Drai and MacKinnon can jointly win it this year