Auston Matthews is having an unbelievable season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but Connor McDavid has officially taken the Hart Trophy from him.
The Toronto Maple Leafs franchise player may one day win the NHL’s MVP Award, but it won’t be this season. Ever since the picture of Matthews and McDavid training in the offseason went viral, the two have been tied to each other. For the first time in their career, they had the opportunity to play in the same division and were going to rival each other more than a few times per season.
After only playing a few NHL games from March-January, both players were coming into the 2020-21 season prepared and fresh.
If McDavid hadn’t missed a seven games last year, he probably would’ve won the Hart Trophy over his teammate Leon Draisaitl, so you knew he was poised to take that crown back. Currently in his sixth NHL season, it’s seems hard to believe that McDavid has only won one Hart and two Art Ross Trophies, because there’s no better player in the world than him.
McDavid was the clear favorite to win the Hart Trophy this year, and as the season progressed, the battle between him and Matthews ensued.
Night-after-night, both players would dominate their opponent and try to one-up each other. With McDavid playing on the west coast, it felt like whenever Matthews did something special at 7:00PM EST, McDavid matched it at 10:00PM EST.
Although there’s a few games left in the season, we can officially crown McDavid with the Hart.
McDavid Is the Clear Hart Trophy Winner
After Matthews went on another scoring tear and seemed to find the back of the net every night, the debate on who deserved the title sparked up, again. Although McDavid was lapping the league in points, he was doing it on an inferior team, while playing with last year’s Hart Trophy winner.
Goals are valued more than points, so Matthews’ pace was a valid argument.
Matthews has 34 goals and 58 points in 44 games, which is an 64 goal and 108 point pace in a normal season (stats: hockeydb.com). The fact that he isn’t the clear favorite to win the Hart shows you just how special of a season that McDavid is having.
After scoring a hat-trick, while adding an assist on Monday night, McDavid now has 28 goals and 81 points in 46 games (stats: hockeydb.com). That’s a pace of 50 goals and 144 points (!!!!!!), which makes him the most deserving player of the Hart.
He’s scoring at a rate that we haven’t seen since Mario Lemieux in the mid-90s, which is absolutely insane. Although Matthews isn’t going to win the Hart Trophy this year, he’s probably going to get nominated, which is a huge accomplishment.
For Leafs fans sakes, let’s hope they don’t have to face McDavid in the First Round and Toronto gets the last laugh in the playoffs.