Toronto Maple Leafs: Matthews Can Relate to McDavid about Hart Ballot

During the 2022 NHL Awards, Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews would take home the Hart Trophy after collecting 119 first place votes, thanks to scoring 60 goals in just 73 games.

However, on that ballot, one voter did not put the Toronto Maple Leafs center as one of his top five choices and that was Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer Seth Rorabaugh.

Monday night Rorarbaugh was up to his old tricks.

The 2023 NHL Award show saw the league hand out the awards and Connor McDavid cleaned house taking home several trophies.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Matthews Can Relate to McDavid about Hart Ballot

In 2022, Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews was shafted by a Pittsburgh writer for the Hart Trophy, that same media member did it to Connor McDavid this year.

Just like 2022, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer appeared to make some interesting choices on his ballot, including not having McDavid as his number one choice for the Hart Trophy and in fact had four other players ahead of him.

How did Rorabaugh make such a poor vote?  Did he do this in any other categories?  Here is a look at Rorabaugh’s 2023 award ballot:

Hart Ballot: David Pastrnak, Jason Robertson, Ilya Sorokin, Matthew Tkachuk, Connor McDavid

McDavid would take home the award after collecting the most goals (64) in a single season since Alex Ovechkin scored 65 during the 2007-08 season.

The Toronto native also collected 153-points which was the 15th highest in the history of the NHL and the highest total since Mario Lemieux notched 161 during the 1995-96 season (credit: www.quanthockey.com).

One could argue that Pastrnak was the league MVP as he finished just three goals behind McDavid while also finishing 46-points higher than his next closest teammate.

However, to say that Ilya Sorokin who did not even win the Vezina Trophy, along with Matthew Tkachuk and Jason Robertson were ahead of him is just mind boggling.

Norris Ballot: Adam Fox, Miro Heiskanen, Quinn Hughes, Mikhail Sergachev, Cale Makar
There is not an issue with Fox being listed as his top choice for the Norris Trophy, as the 2021 winner collected 72-points on the season while logging over 24 minutes of ice-time a night and 41 other voters had him as the top choice.

The curious part of his ballot is that he would not give any votes to the eventual winner Erik Karlsson.  The San Jose Shark blue liner would take home the award thanks to 123 other voters having him as the top choice.

Karlsson became just the 15th defenseman in league history to record 100-points and the first since Brian Leetch recorded 102-points during the 1991-92 season.

Saying that a defenseman who scored over 100 points and was second in the NHL in 5v5 scoring, and who, at 5v5, broke even while playing against other team’s first lines on the San Jose Sharks is not one of the five best in the league is absolutely ridiculous.

One could argue his -26 was a deterrent from receiving the top vote, but to not have a player with the best offensive season in a third of a century is just crazy.  Journalists prominent enough to get awards votes should be aware by this point of the irrelevance of plus/minus anyways.

Especially since he had Mikhail Sergachev fourth on his ballot, which was just one of two votes the Lightning defenseman received.

Selke Ballot: Jordan Staal, Nico Hischier, Elias Lindholm, Patrice Bergeron, Erik Haula
I am not sure what is more skeptical on this award, Bergeron receiving a fourth-place vote or that Haula who is a third liner receiving his only vote from Rorabaugh.

Bergeron would take home his sixth Selke Award after being a finalist for 12 straight seasons, but if it were up to Rorabaugh, Bergeron would not have even been on one of the three finalists.

Haula, who averaged just 16:38 of ice-time a game received his first and only vote for any award over his ten-year career from Rorabaugh.

The good part of the ballots is that you get several different opinions, but in Rorabaugh’s case he is so far offside that he should lose his opportunity to cast a ballot.