NHL Awards: 8 Players Who Got Snubbed From Hart Trophy Consideration
NHL Awards: 8 Players Who Got Snubbed for the Hart Trophy in 2015-16
NHL Awards Hart Memorial Trophy is annually rewarded to the player judged most valuable to his team.
Each season, the most elites players are nominated and most often win the incredible award. In 2015, Montreal Canadians goalie Carey Price won, making him the first goalie to win since Jose Theodore in the 2001-02 season, also of the Montreal Canadians.
This years candidates are Chicago Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane (46 G, 60 A, 106 P), Dallas Stars LW Jamie Benn (41 G, 48 A, 89 P) and Pittsburgh Penguins C Sidney Crosby (36 G, 49 A, 85 P).
With every season only having 3 candidates for NHL Awards, there’s bound to be a few standout players that may have deserved at least a nomination for what they did for their team.
Here are 8 players who had a successful 2016 season, but weren’t given the recognition they deserve:
8: Drew Doughty, LA Kings.
The Kings defenceman has played a very large role in the Kings success since 2012, winning 2 cups. After missing the 2015 playoffs, the Kings came back this season strong and made the playoffs, losing in the first round to state rivals San Jose Sharks.
Drew is by far the Kings best defenceman, putting up big numbers offensively and defensively every night.
2016 Stats:
Goals: 14
Assists: 37
Points: 51
Points Per Game: 0.62
+/-: 24
Other Nominations: Norris (Best defenceman)
7: John Tavares, New York Islanders
He’s been called the lifeline of the Islanders since his rookie season, and for good reason.
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Though it’s getting better, the Islanders never had a deep lineup. Kyle Okposo and Johnny T can and has been a great duo, but it still doesn’t match up to teams like Chicago with Panarin and Kane, Capitals with Backstrom and Ovechkin, or even the Lightnings Johnson, Kucherov and Killorn like that eliminated them from the post season.
Despite this, Tavares has been putting up points his whole career. Though he only had 70 this season, he carried the Islanders to the playoffs with his energetic play and locker room leadership.
His points weren’t as pretty compared to the candidates this year, but his importance to the team puts him on this list, as it should any others as that is what the award is really about.
2016 Stats:
Goals: 33
Assists: 37
Points: 70
Points Per Game: 0.89
+/-: 6
6: Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks.
Burns had a monstrous year, and has continued that through the playoff run the Sharks continue to extend.
San Jose missed the playoffs last season, and came in expected to struggle. A lack of depth and without a bona-fide starter, it wasn’t looking pretty for the upcoming season. But with the leadership and energy of Burns and captain Joe Pavelski, the veterans Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau showed they still have it in them.
Burns, who’s known as a 200 foot player that can play forward and defenceman, put up incredible numbers this season as the Sharks keep surprising. His offensive capabilities mixed with his physical game makes him constantly the most dangerous player on the ice, and the number 1 defenceman for the San Jose Sharks.
2016 Stats:
Goals: 27
Assists: 48
Points: 75
Points Per Game: 0.91
+/-: -5
Other Nominations: Norris (Best defenseman)
5: Ben Bishop, Tampa Bay Lightning.
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos has been having an obvious decline through the past few seasons, and a blood clot which took him out of the playoffs didn’t help.
Without a superstar sniper and some offensive struggles at points in the season, defense was relied on. But the backbone to their success and through the first two rounds, until the game 1 injury, was goaltender Ben Bishop.
The 6’7 beast has only been getting better, finishing first in GAA and second in SV%. Every night he’s a game changer, and is very good under pressure.
Getting injured in game 1 of the Penguins-Lightning ECF may affect the Lightning more that they hoped, and made it clear how important he is to the team.
2016 Stats:
GAA: 2.06
SV%: .926
Wins: 35
Shutouts: 6
Other Nominations: Vezina (Best Goalie)
4: Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames.
The 2015 season for the Flames was one they wish they can repeat, but 2016 wasn’t quite what they wanted.
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Struggling goaltending and inconsistent defence killed the flames, but a bright spot was found in sophomore Johnny Gaudreau.
December was the start of his stardom, finishing as 1st star of the month with two hat tricks and many multi-point games. Almost single-handedly putting his team back into a playoff spot through December and early January, but injuries and bad play caught up to them and were clearly out by all-star break. But Gaudreau kept going, and finished the season tied for 6th in points.
Ahead of stars such as Alex Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos. Johnny Hockey could have taken his team to another post season performance, but unfortunately the team around him wasn’t deep enough, At only 23 years of age, expect to see his name under the nomination list soon as he continues to get better.
2016 Stats:
Goals: 30
Assists: 48
Points: 78
Points Per Game: 0.99
+/-: 4
3: Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals.
The Presidents Trophy winners couldn’t get it done in the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a successful year. One of the best lineups in the NHL is led by captain Alexander Ovechkin, who just can’t stop scoring.
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He hit his 500th career goal this year, and became the highest scoring Russian in NHL history. Also hitting the 50 goal mark for the 7th time in his incredible career.
With help from linemate Niklas Backstrom, the great 8 continues to be an unstoppable force in the NHL, all he needs is a Stanley Cup to complete his marvelous collection.
2016 Stats:
Goals: 50
Assists: 21
Points: 71
Points Per Game: 0.79
+/-: 21
Other Awards: Rocket Richard (Most goals)
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2: Erik Karlsson, Ottawa Senators.
The Senators also failed to make the playoffs, but if it weren’t for EK65, it would have been a lot worse for the Canadian capital.
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One of the best offensive seasons for a defenceman in years, Karlsson killed the scoreboards finishing tied for 4th in points, only 3 points behind Sidney Crosby.
A vital part to any of the Senators success throughout the season, he is and will be recalled as one of the best offensive defenceman in his generation.
2016 Stats:
Goals: 16
Assists: 66
Points: 82
Points Per Game: 1.00
Other nominations: Norris Trophy (Best Defenceman)
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1: Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals.
Tying a record set by one of the best goalies of all time deserves some recognition. Losing only 9 games out of 66 deserves even more recognition. Being the starting goalie on the best team the NHL has seen in a decade definitely makes you one of the most important players in the NHL. So Braden Holtby not being nominated is almost insulting, and I personally believe it’s one of the biggest snubs I’ve witnessed.
Holtbeast is impossible to beat, having a glove that appears to have a wingspan across the whole net, which is evident with his countless gloves robberies.
He’s athletic, fast and big. Almost a perfect goalie, but couldn’t stop the Penguins in the second biggest upset of 2016 (behind the Islanders, who would’ve guessed?). If Holtby continues this pace, he will one day win the award players and goalies only dream of.
2016 Stats:
GAA: 2.20
SV%: .922
Wins: 48
Shutouts: 3
Other Nominations: Vezina (Best Goalie)