Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by Carter Hutton to discuss who will come away with the Hart Trophy in this episode of Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: There’s less than a month left in the season and the awards races are heating up although a couple of them feel like slam-dunks. Over in the MVP debate Nathan MacKinnon is starting to pull away, especially when you look at the odds from our friends at Betano. He’s now down at -250 with Connor McDavid in second at +450 and Nikita Kucherov comes in at +500.
That’s kind of the core three group right now with MacKinnon pulling away. Is there anything McDavid or Kucherov can do down the stretch to make this race a little bit tighter?
Carter Hutton: You know, there’s still so much hockey left. We talk about swings and the Red Wings losing a few games and falling out of the playoffs, I think the race is very similar to that. One guy could get hot, Kucherov added a four-point night in the late game and went ahead in the standings as well. I always think there’s that give and take with it but for me MacKinnon has been the MVP all around the rink.
It’s not just what he does offensively, it’s what he does away from the puck and what he does in the locker room or what he does just as a leader and presence on that team, it’s hard to find on the stat sheets. I think about players that impacted my career or the teams I was on and Nathan MacKinnon seems to be that guy. Kucherov seems to check out and mail it in where he just has that offensive upside and skill where McDavid arguably can do the same thing but I think that’s taken more of a back seat to propel this Oilers team into a winning standard.
For me, MacKinnon is the guy right now but I still think time will tell over this last stretch, especially the fact that post trade deadline and into the playoff run the game tightens up and it does not seem to affect MacKinnon at all.
You can watch the rest of the episode here:
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