I just accidentally deleted my post comparing their competition during their peak seasons.. too pissed to redo everything again..
So i'll just say this is one of those cases were looking at point and hart finishes doesn't tell the whole story.
MSL's 2003-04 Art Ross is probably the weakest in the 21st century outside of Benn. Fortunately for MSL, Forsberg who was lapping the competition, got injured. Even than, Kovalchuk and Sakic (probably not even a top 3 season of his career) wasnt trailing far behind.
The hart competiton was pretty awful too. Iginla wasn't even top 10 in points and was somehow 2nd in hart voting. Whether he deserved that placement or not, it goes to show how weak the year was. When was the last time a forward that didn't finish top 10 in scoring finished as a hart finalist?
2012-13, same deal in which Crosby most likely would have lapped the field if not for injuries. The competition was strong though.
Even in 2010-11, D. Sedin and Corey Perry is not the strongest competition.
Meanwhile, Claude Giroux in 2010-11 is competing against the best goalscoring season and arguably Art Ross win of that decade.
Then in 2017-18 is 2nd place to McDavid, and while it's one of his weaker art Ross trophies, it's still stronger than what MSL faced in 2003-04.
Even 2013-14 where he finished 3rd in Hart voting.. Crosby that year was a stronger art Ross win than D. Sedin who had the same point total in a higher scoring environment, and definitely stronger competition than Kovalchuk or Iginla.
If you were to compare each of their peak seasons and see how far ahead they were against the 10th, 20th place scorers, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't much of a gap.