The Hart Trophy race is shaping up to be very interesting this season.
Connor McDavid won unanimously after scoring 105 points in 56 games last season, but this year’s race features Auston Matthews, Igor Shesterkin, Jonathan Huberdeau, and, as Matt Larkin suggested in Thursday’s edition of The Daily Faceoff Show, Jason Robertson.
Seravalli: “There’s been lots of talk about the Maple Leafs and Auston Matthews as a candidate for the Hart Trophy, but you think there’s another name that we should have on our list as we get closer to awards time in late April.”
Larkin: “I’m looking at Jason Robertson and I’m getting shades of Taylor Hall in 2017-18 with the New Jersey Devils.
"I’m a purist when it comes to the Hart Trophy. I want to give it to the player who’s most valuable to his team, not the best player, that’s the Ted Lindsay Award for the most outstanding player, as voted by the players. The Hart Trophy is for the most valuable.
"It’s not just a recency bias thing, getting wowed by two hat-tricks, it goes a lot deeper than that. If you look at the last 28 games for the Dallas Stars, 21 goals for Jason Robertson, and, more importantly, six game-winning goals. The Stars have won 19 of those games.
"He’s single-handedly taking this team on his shoulders and carrying them towards the playoffs. If the Stars can make it, and they don’t have Miro Heiskanen [out indefinitely with mono], they’re going to need a lot more scoring to get by, and Jason Robertson is going to be the one doing it.
"If you look at Hall, he had 41 points more than his closest teammate in 2017-18. Robertson has great linemates with Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski, but he’s already got seven more goals than his next closest teammate and he’s missed eight games this season.
He’s playing at a different level than anybody else on the team and he’s the number one reason the Stars have clawed back into the playoff race in the Western Conference.”
You can watch the full episode here…
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