Article content continued
In 2017-18, using this criteria, the top three finalists were, in order: McDavid, Claude Giroux and Evgeni Malkin, with Hall at sixth overall.
In 2019-2020, Draisaitl is in first, followed by David Pastrnak, then McDavid in third.
One thing held against Draisaitl by some NHL insiders, such as Boston broadcaster Joe Haggerty, is that if he wins he’ll be the first Hart Trophy winner in league history to be a minus player, with his official NHL plus-minus at -7. The NHL includes both empty-net goals against and power play goals against in this total. Draisaitl was on the ice for 10 opposition short-handed goals against and 12 empty net goals against. If you eliminate those non-even strength goals from from his “even strength” goals plus-minus total, Draisaitl actually ends up at +3.
Of course, the voting has already been done for the MVP award this year. I suspect Draisaitl has won it, not just because he was so dominant when it came to scoring points this year, but also because he had a compelling narrative around him.
It’s crucial to note that Draisaitl’s name almost never came up in MVP talk for most of the year even as he put up such great scoring numbers. As late as February 13, with just one month to go in the season, betting odds makers didn’t see him as a serious candidate for the Hart Trophy. In fact, they didn’t see him as any kind of candidate at all.
At Sportsbettindime, they listed the top nine candidates. Draisaitl’s name was not on the list. The same went for OddsShark, which listed 12 players, but not one of them is Draisaitl. The gambling site Bodog also listed nine players as MVP faves. Again Draisaitl was yet again not on the list.
