The NHL’s Hart Trophy race is tight coming down to the wire

With the regular season set to end on Thursday night, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs in sight, many are wondering which superstar is going to earn this year’s Hart Trophy.

A number of players have had stellar performances during the 2023-24 season. From Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov each joining a select class of players to reach 100 assists, to Auston Matthews leading the league with 69 goals, this is shaping up to be one of the tightest races for league’s most valuable player in a long time.

Other names that have risen to the surface include Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon, who has really carried his team despite Gabriel Landeskog missing another regular season, and Norris Trophy candidate Cale Makar also missing time.

Also, New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin quietly posted 120 points this year, leading the Blueshirts to the team’s first Presidents’ Trophy in nine years.

On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Colby Cohen and Steven Ellis give their takes on the multitude of candidates for the Hart Trophy.

Colby Cohen: This has been a widely debated topic. Everyone seems to be going in a different direction.

Steven Ellis: Nathan MacKinnon has been so good for the Colorado Avalanche, he does a bit of everything. I’m still gonna lead to him. I’m not putting Kucherov in the runaway, front-runner one here. What’s so important here is, I feel like we’ve been talking about how underrated he is. I think he deserves a lot more love for what he’s able to do this year. The numbers are incredible.

Colby: If we’re going to say Kucherov 100 [assists] puts him in the Hart conversation, then we have to look at the fact that Connor McDavid had the same feat a couple of days ago. I will say this, [Lightning coach] Jon Cooper last night, on television, did a little sell-job on why Kucherov is so important to that team.

You can watch the entire segment and full episode here…