The Hart Trophy voting unanimous.
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Dreakmur
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Here's a link: http://hfboards.com/showpost.php?p=6280731&postcount=101
That post has Hart voting records from as far back as the trophy's first year. Hope that's what you were looking for.
- Mar 10, 2011
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Psycho Papa Joe
Porkchop Hoser
Many voters value playing the full season and/or making the playoffs when making their Hart selections. In none of Mario's Hart winnging seasons did he play both a full season and also make the playoffs.
unknown33
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- Dec 8, 2009
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So Steph Curry is the first ever NBA player who won an unanimous MVP trophy, although this feat was spoilt my 'controversial' voters on prior occasions (Shaq 99/00, LeBron 12/13)
Now let's talk about the NHL.
Any season where the Hart winner got robbed of a 100% 1st place voting record by some terrible/homer sportswriter(s)?
Gretzky deserved it more than once, that's for sure.
Got 60 out of 62 in 83/84, two guys decided to vote for Langway/Trottier instead for whatever reason.
Now let's talk about the NHL.
Any season where the Hart winner got robbed of a 100% 1st place voting record by some terrible/homer sportswriter(s)?
Gretzky deserved it more than once, that's for sure.
Got 60 out of 62 in 83/84, two guys decided to vote for Langway/Trottier instead for whatever reason.
I don't know about Lemieux being unanimous. I'm a big Lemieux fan, but all during Lemieux's prime Gretzky played too. And later on, Lindros, and Jagr (teammate, no less), Hasek...and Lemieux rarely played full seasons. I think Lemieux may have been the best player in the NHL for most seasons played than anyone else in the league's history, but i could easily see a place where he wouldn't qualify for a "unanimous" MVP selection even once.
Howe? Howe was a different time. And I am just guessing here but - his best years coincided with some pretty strong Habs season/Rocket Richard's career. I could see Richard taking votes away from Howe almost every year, so not entirely surprising if he never won a hart unanimously.
Orr? I'm kind of surprised. Though i've found looking back at his record that it is quite underwhelming in terms of hart finishes. He "only" won 3, placing 3rd and 4th place many other years where looking back you'd think he should have won. Maybe his teammate hurt him too? Or maybe he was a bit under appreciated at the time.
I think Gretzky is the most odd one. During Gretzky's best years - he had no peers. Lemieux wasn't yet in the league, or then he was just starting out as a rookie. Orr was done. No Hasek-like Goalie...and his sheer statistical dominance is staggering. Did he really only have one year of unanimous Hart voting? That's crazy if so.
MXD
Original #4
- Oct 27, 2005
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First of all -- it has to be kept in mind that the "criteria" for the Hart appears to have fluctuated over the years. Knowing what I know about Nels Stewart, he was certainly NOT the best player in the league in 29-30, but I can see how he could've been considered the most valuable player to its team.
This said...
Disregarding Gretzky/Orr...
1996 and 2015. And even then, I could see somebody voting for Kariya/Lindros; Tavares. And 2015 has some kind of "retrospective" feel to it.
This said...
Disregarding Gretzky/Orr...
1996 and 2015. And even then, I could see somebody voting for Kariya/Lindros; Tavares. And 2015 has some kind of "retrospective" feel to it.
Unanimous votes in sports are extremely rare, even when they're super obvious. In the NFL there's only been one unanimous winner and it's one that sticks out a little odd from all; Brady's 2010 season. In 2007 someone voted for Favre over Brady, in 2004 someone voted Vick over Manning and in 2013 someone voted Brady over Manning. None of those choices really make a lick of sense, although Vick over Manning comes off as particularly bad.
In the NBA it should be even more obvious. There was actually semi-substantive resistance to Jordan in 95-96, Jordan in 90-91, LeBron in 08-09 and Kareem in 70-71. As mentioned above LeBron in 2012-13 and Shaq in 1999-2000 were both 1 vote short of unanimous, but the guys who actually got the other 1st place vote were. Iverson finished 7th in voting that year, his team finished 11th overall, he didn't have a great season and there wasn't much to his candidacy. Carmelo finished in 3rd place, well behind Kevin Durant who would've been a much saner choice. I remember the voter for Carmelo wrote a (very bad) article on why he voted for him.
I'd also like to see which other NHL awards have been unanimous. I know Selanne for the Calder in 92-93, Bourque for the 1989-90 Norris and Gretzky for the 81-82 Hart, but a lot of the other ones from the 80's onward that you would've thought would be no doubters had at least some dissenting opinions. How many of Orr's Norris' were unanimous? My guess is a lot less than what should've been. What's the closest we've had to a unanimous vote for the Selke or Vezina?
In the NBA it should be even more obvious. There was actually semi-substantive resistance to Jordan in 95-96, Jordan in 90-91, LeBron in 08-09 and Kareem in 70-71. As mentioned above LeBron in 2012-13 and Shaq in 1999-2000 were both 1 vote short of unanimous, but the guys who actually got the other 1st place vote were. Iverson finished 7th in voting that year, his team finished 11th overall, he didn't have a great season and there wasn't much to his candidacy. Carmelo finished in 3rd place, well behind Kevin Durant who would've been a much saner choice. I remember the voter for Carmelo wrote a (very bad) article on why he voted for him.
I'd also like to see which other NHL awards have been unanimous. I know Selanne for the Calder in 92-93, Bourque for the 1989-90 Norris and Gretzky for the 81-82 Hart, but a lot of the other ones from the 80's onward that you would've thought would be no doubters had at least some dissenting opinions. How many of Orr's Norris' were unanimous? My guess is a lot less than what should've been. What's the closest we've had to a unanimous vote for the Selke or Vezina?
Voight
#winning
Here are the landslide Hart winners back to the start of the 80's, along with others receiving first place votes:
2015: Price (139), Ovechkin (8), Dubnyk (6), Tavares (4)
2014: Crosby (128), Getzlaf (5), Giroux (2), Varlamov (1), Price (1)
2012: Malkin (144), Lundqvist (3), Stamkos (1), Quick (1)
2008: Ovechkin (128), Iginla (2), Lidstrom (2), Malkin (1), Brodeur (1)
2004: St. Louis (97), Iginla (2), Brodeur (2), Luongo (2), Belfour (1), Thornton (1)
1999: Jagr (54), Hasek (4), Joseph (1)
1997: Hasek (50), Kariya (3), Lemieux (1)
1993: Lemieux (49), LaFontaine (1)
1992: Messier (67), Roy (1), Hull (1)
1988: Lemieux (54), Fuhr (4), Yzerman (3), Gretzky (2)
1987: Gretzky (49), Bourque (2), Lemieux (2), Liut (1)
1986: Gretzky (54), Lemieux (4), Coffey (1), Vanbiesbrouck (1)
1985: Gretzky (60), Hawerchuk (1), Langway (1), Sutter (1)
1984: Gretzky (60), Langway (1), Trottier (1)
One barrier is the positional votes. It's rare that goalies are shut out of first place votes regardless of how strong the top goalie's candidacy is or how strong the top skater's candidacy is. Similarly, I'm not sure what it would take for a goalie to eat up every single 1st place vote for a forward but we haven't seen it yet.
And number of votes is a factor too.
2015: Price (139), Ovechkin (8), Dubnyk (6), Tavares (4)
2014: Crosby (128), Getzlaf (5), Giroux (2), Varlamov (1), Price (1)
2012: Malkin (144), Lundqvist (3), Stamkos (1), Quick (1)
2008: Ovechkin (128), Iginla (2), Lidstrom (2), Malkin (1), Brodeur (1)
2004: St. Louis (97), Iginla (2), Brodeur (2), Luongo (2), Belfour (1), Thornton (1)
1999: Jagr (54), Hasek (4), Joseph (1)
1997: Hasek (50), Kariya (3), Lemieux (1)
1993: Lemieux (49), LaFontaine (1)
1992: Messier (67), Roy (1), Hull (1)
1988: Lemieux (54), Fuhr (4), Yzerman (3), Gretzky (2)
1987: Gretzky (49), Bourque (2), Lemieux (2), Liut (1)
1986: Gretzky (54), Lemieux (4), Coffey (1), Vanbiesbrouck (1)
1985: Gretzky (60), Hawerchuk (1), Langway (1), Sutter (1)
1984: Gretzky (60), Langway (1), Trottier (1)
One barrier is the positional votes. It's rare that goalies are shut out of first place votes regardless of how strong the top goalie's candidacy is or how strong the top skater's candidacy is. Similarly, I'm not sure what it would take for a goalie to eat up every single 1st place vote for a forward but we haven't seen it yet.
And number of votes is a factor too.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
Hockey Outsider
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Hart
The only unanimous Hart was Gretzky in 1982.
Here are the twenty instances (1947 to present) where the winner had a 90%+ vote share:
- Wayne Gretzky: 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987
- Mario Lemieux: 1988, 19983
- Dominik Hasek: 1997, 1998
- Alex Ovechkin: 2008, 2009
- Stan Mikita: 1967
- Bobby Clarke: 1976
- Mark Messier: 1992
- Jaromir Jagr: 1999
- Joe Sakic: 2001
- Martin St. Louis: 2004
- Evgeni Malkin: 2012
- Sidney Crosby: 2014
- Carey Price: 2015
Interestingly, none before 1967. Award winners tended to earn a smaller share of the votes back then - presumably because the league was small enough that the voters actually watched the players on a regular basis and didn't jump on the late season "media narrative bandwagon".
Norris
There have only been two unanimous Norris trophies - Bobby Orr in 1970, and Ray Bourque in 1990.
There have been twenty instances of a defenseman winning the Norris with a 90%+ vote share:
- Bobby Orr: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975
- Nicklas Lidstrom: 2001, 2003, 2008
- Paul Coffey: 1986, 1995
- Ray Bourque: 1987, 1990
- Brian leetch: 1992, 1997
- Red Kelly: 1954
- Doug Harvey: 1961
- Al MacInnis: 1999
- Chris Pronger: 2000
Vezina
The only unanimous Vezina trophy was, perhaps surprisingly, Pete Peeters in 1983.
Years where the winner had a 90%+ vote share: Ed Belfour (1991), Dominik Hasek (1997 and 1998), Miika Kiprusoff (2006) and Carey Price (2015).
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The Panther
Registered User
For sure!!!
Fischler always had a bone to pick with Gretzky and the Oilers. He'd ask players if they thought Gretzky was a wimp and will not acknowledge the Oilers as a dynasty due to their untimely exit in 1986 to the Flames.
Sens Rule
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- Sep 22, 2005
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I hate Fischer. Consider him the ultimate hack hockey journalist. No respect for him at all. Read his books as a kid... In the 80's. Like near mint copy of Bobby Orr and thr big bad Bruins. Sunscribed to the Hockey News. Where he always picked the Rangers for the Cup. I didn't realize he was a hack, lying, piece of garbage.
Apparently he just made up the higher level stats and shot positions of most players in a 1987/88 book assessing all the players in the NHL.
He has some stupid feud with Orr and Gretzky which makes him embarrassingly underrate them the last 20 years.
I hate Stan. He stands for everything wrong with hockey journalism. For multiple decades. He is an embarassment to his trade and as a journalist or NHL reporter. He is a disgusting, total liar. It is reprehensible he still is employed and used by MSG network.
He literally stands for all that is wrong with hockey... For fifty years.
Canadiens1958
Registered User
Two Votes
Two votes - mid season and end of season. Performance, perception and at times injuries were considered.
Two votes - mid season and end of season. Performance, perception and at times injuries were considered.
Big Phil
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- Nov 2, 2003
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It probably was. Very strange indeed. Even before I read this thread the first thing I thought was that in years like Mario 1993 or Gretzky (pick one) outside of his only unanimous vote in 1982 there is always someone that pulls a "Fischler" and pretends he is the smartest guy in the room and that he knows what he is talking about. Or you can even call it the Bobby Clarke/Rob Zamuner theory if you will.
I would really like to know who thought Lafontaine was better and more valuable than Lemieux in 1993. This was just no contest. He checked off every single box and then some that year. There are years such as Orr in 1970 where you assume if we can see the 1st place votes back then (which we can't) that someone might like the season Tony Esposito had and choose him 1st. I can see that and I can also see many giving Phil Esposito the nod in Orr's Hart years because Esposito himself did win two Harts as Orr's teammate so that makes sense.
But some of these years................really?
A guy gave Phil Housley a first place vote in the 1999 Norris when he was well back in the scoring race, his team was bad defensively and didn't make the playoffs and you had a wonderful year from MacInnis who won 54 of 56 first place votes plus several other players that were, clearly, far ahead of Housley.
Big Phil
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I see that, and had to look twice. MacInnis gets all but two first place votes, Housley - who finished 10th in voting - got another one and Pronger got the last one. Okay, Pronger is alright, either one of Lidstrom or Bourque would have done as well. But was this a Calgary writer that may have thought he knew a bit better?
