Should Nikita Kucherov have won the Hart with how many awards Lightning received?
There has been a lot of chatter regarding who was named the NHL’s most valuable player.
On Thursday night, the NHL announced that Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov has won the 2025-26 Hart Trophy, narrowly beating out Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon. He was a key part of the team’s return to the top of the Atlantic Division. He finished second in the league with 130 points, the second-most points in his legendary career.
Yet, some wonder how truly valuable Kucherov was this season, especially given the fact that head coach Jon Cooper won the Jack Adams Award (finally) for coach of the year, while Andrei Vasilevskiy took home the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender once again.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk discussed whether Kucherov should’ve won the Hart, especially since the Lightning already have other individuals winning hardware.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Do I think Nikita Kucherov had a fantastic season? Absolutely, he did. Look at the stat line; the guy had 130 points last year. 130 points is unbelievable. For Kucherov, a big congratulations, it’s his second career MVP. He is a first ballot Hall of Famer, top of his sport. I have no qualms with Nikita Kucherov himself. Great player.
What was he most valuable to in Tampa Bay? For some reason, this has become the year of voting for the Lightning. I sat through years of people saying, ‘Well, you got to take a few points off Connor [McDavid] because he gets to play with Leon.’ And ‘Well, it’s hard for Leon to win an MVP last season, losing out to Connor Hellebuyck, because Leon has Connor. No, they take balance, they give each other help, they have that benefit.’ Nikita Kucherov has the Jack Adams winner this year and the Vezina Trophy winner. So, how is Nikita Kucherov the most valuable to his team, who comfortably made the playoffs, and he’s got the Jack Adams winner and the Vezina Trophy winner?
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…