The biggest snubs for the 2024 NHL Hart Trophy

On Tuesday, the NHL announced the three finalists for the 2024 Hart Trophy given to the player most valuable to his team: Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid. 

And as with any award, there are some disagreements about who was chosen as a finalist and eventually, who wins. 

So were there any deserving players who were snubbed from this list? Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss two possible candidates in today’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live. 

Auston Matthews led the NHL in scoring with a career-high 69 goals. He was one away from becoming only the ninth player in NHL history to hit 70. 

The Arizona native racked up a league-high six hat tricks this season and tied Pat LaFontaine for the most hat tricks by a U.S.-born player (13). But Matthews also finished sixth in overall points (107), 37 shy of the league lead. 

Artemi Panarin was the best player, by far, on the NHL’s best team, the New York Rangers. 

Panarin led New York and finished fourth in scoring with 120 points (49 goals, 71 assists), as the Rangers won the President’s Trophy with the most points in the regular season (114). Panarin tallied 24 more goals and 43 more points than the next-best skater on the team.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Frank, we got our Hart Trophy finalists today in the NHL… Was anyone snubbed?

Frank Seravalli: These were not the three that I had on my ballot. My three finalists based on my ballot alone would have been, in alphabetical order: Kucherov, MacKinnon [and] Panarin. I just thought Panarin was the unquestioned MVP on the top team in the regular season this year… Auston Matthew and the 69 goals, I have seen the bellyaching from fans… Fantastic year. Certainly lacking in the assists or points department compared to everybody else. I think there was certainly a case to be made for McDavid, but I didn’t have him in my top three. 

You can watch the full segment and episode here: