The Daily Faceoff Show: Which NHL player deserves more love this season?

The inbox question on Tuesday’s Daily Faceoff Show asked Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna to fill in the blank on which NHL player isn’t getting enough love for his 2021-22 season. Seravalli and McKenna followed very different philosophies to arrive at their answers. Check it out:

Mike McKenna: I think Rasmus Andersson of the Calgary Flames. And I know the Flames are an easy target because they’ve been a good team. They’ve had a ton of scoring from everybody, it seems, (among) those forwards. But if your forwards are going to score, you need your ‘D’ to move the puck. And man, if you’re the Calgary Flames and you’re GM Brad Treliving, you’ve got to be happy having a guy locked up like Andersson for the next four years at a value of just over $4.5 million. He’s leading Calgary’s defense in scoring. He’s got 42 points, 38 assists, and it’s been dispersed. He’s done it 5-on-5, he’s got 16 points on the power play. And it’s his fourth season in the NHL, and you look for growth in defensemen, and a lot of them don’t mature until they’re 26, 27 years old. And that’s what we’re looking at for Andersson here. He’s doubled his offensive output this season. It’s higher than it’s ever been. I’ve been really impressed with his play. And I think the defensive side’s come along, too.

Frank Seravalli: I’m going to go just up the road, Highway 2, to Edmonton. It sounds funny to say this, but ultimately, at the end of the day, one of Connor McDavid and/or Leon Draisaitl won’t end up getting enough love for their season. And the reason for that is, I think that their two excellent campaigns are going to end up essentially canceling each other out or at least decreasing their chances for the Hart Trophy. I think you’ve seen this tear from Auston Matthews, for whatever reason, I don’t know why, it seems that in this case, people seem to knock McDavid or Draisaitl down a peg because they end up playing with each other at varying points. Whereas Auston Matthews has a guy in Mitch Marner who’s eighth in the league in scoring and doesn’t really seem to get the same treatment.

It’s a big puzzle for Hart Trophy voters. How do you end up handling this? Because, by the literal definition of the award, if you end up taking it literally, well, if it’s for most valuable player to his team, the other technically shouldn’t be on your ballot at all. I’m not necessarily a literal voter. I don’t think you can write off one of these seasons and not have them be part of your top five. I think it’s a bigger discussion than it’s ever been. But I just think in the end, unfortunately, one of these guys is going to end up losing out and isn’t going to get enough attention for what have been pretty unbelievable seasons. You’ve got potentially the league points leader in the Art Ross race with Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl who’s still challenging Auston Matthews, though he seems to be running away with it, for the Rocket. So, lots of attention on those guys, but in the end, voting wise, one of them’s gonna suffer.

Mike McKenna: It’ll be interesting. It always ends up splitting the votes, it seems like. Those two have been absolutely fantastic. No surprise there. And fair point about Marner. He’s eighth in scoring, but he’s been leading the NHL for the past several weeks now. He’s had those games missed. So a really good point about the Toronto Maple Leafs in comparison to the Edmonton Oilers.