NHL: 25 worst award snubs in the history of hockey

Every year, NHL fans and analysts debate every award from the Hart Trophy to the Lady Bing and everything in between. When there is a snub, it’s something that sits with players for years. If a player is “deserving” of being named MVP, but someone else wins it that year. They may never get a chance to win it again.

Every year, people think there is a snub. Even when the award winner seems obvious, there will be arguments. Last season, Connor McDavid got every single first-place vote for MVP. Still, some would say that Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews, or Aleksander Barkov deserved to win the award. It’s not the right move, and McDavid deserved the win.

However, this list isn’t looking for the obvious. This list is considering the players that got robbed. There are dozens of examples of players who deserved to win awards but when the announcement was made another name was called the winner. Sometimes it’s the winner of the playoff MVP, or other times it’s the Selke Award for best defensive forward in the league.

Which NHL players saw the biggest award snubs in history?

There are some snubs that live on in history. The snubs sting so hard we still feel them decades later. We wonder why the voters got it so wrong. Did they do right by the league with how they decided these awards? The voters are trying to consolidate what happened this entire season with a few votes. Sometimes they get it wrong. When did they get it the most wrong? It starts with a superstar defenseman who deserved to be rookie of the year.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 25. Charlie McAvoy – Calder Trophy 2018

This one would be higher on the list, but it’s hard to argue for Mathew Barzal in 2018. But we have some gripes with how the voting process worked. How did Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy end up fifth in Calder voting in 2018? This is a travesty of justice if we’ve ever seen one. The finalists ended up being Barzal, Brock Boeser, and Clayton Keller. McAvoy was a top defenseman for a superstar team at one of the hardest positions in the league.

These awards are supposed to track the impact a player has on the game, right? Sure, Barzal was great offensively, but McAvoy was great at both sides of the ice. He played 22 minutes per night on a team that had 112 points in the standings. They were one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for tops in the NHL.

McAvoy was on the ice for 54 goals at even strength. His impact was clear. Meanwhile, the Bruins only allowed 33 goals when he was on the ice. A 21 goal difference at 5v5 is huge for any team. Meanwhile, Barzal only had a 13-goal difference.

McAvoy’s impact is impossible to doubt. For him to do what he did as a rookie deserves recognition. For him to finish fifth feels preposterous. What are these voters doing? We’re not asking for them to master the art of analytics, but to now understand the impact of a defenseman because a few other players got points is just silly.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 24. Nathan Mackinnon ESPY Award 2021

Alright, this isn’t an NHL award, but it was still a major snub. ESPN was vying for the NHL’s rights, and they eventually won the rights along with TNT. ESPN takes over for NBC for the rights to the greatest game on ice. Right before all this happens, they name the nominees for best NHL player. Connor McDavid. Okay, that makes sense. Auston Mathews. That one is fine, too. Andrei Vasilevskiy. It’s weirder to add a goalie, but that’s also fine. Nathan MacKinnon needs to be the next player on the list.

Nope. They picked Patrick freaking Kane. What is this, 2015? Then, he won!

This was just a cavalcade of errors by ESPN. Patrick Kane shouldn’t have even been nominated for the award. Yet, he won the award? This was one of the worst awards decisions we’ve ever seen. It didn’t help that ESPN was vying for the rights to a league they clearly didn’t understand. Is Kane even in the top ten for NHL players right now?

To completely take Nathan MacKinnon off the list shows a complete misunderstanding of this league. The ESPYs aren’t the supreme sports awards the company was hoping they would become. It’s decisions like Patrick Kane over Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon which is why the ESPYs will never be taken seriously by hockey fans.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 23. Ryan O’Reilly Selke Trophy 2020

Alright, back to our regularly scheduled programming. The Selke Trophy is always controversial. It seems like voters tend to go towards the two-way forward who gets a lot of points. This is the description of the Selke Trophy from the NHL itself.

The Frank J. Selke Trophy is an annual award given “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.”

Funny, don’t see anything about points in that description. Well, it seems like the same players keep getting into the Selke Trophy conversation. Patrice Bergeron is always on that list, and to be fair, he deserves it. Anze Kopitar gets on the list all the time, too. This used to be the Pavel Datsyuk award for a long time. Now, Ryan O’Reilly could take over the award, but just two seasons ago, he was a major snub.

O’Reilly won the award in 2019 in his first year with the St. Louis Blues. That season, he helped lead the Blues all the way to a Stanley Cup win. It was a great story, turning around a team that was in last place in the league and making a run all the way to “glory”.

In 2020, he was just as good, except his impact lasted all season. Of all the players in the league who played 1,000 minutes, only four were on the ice for fewer goals against than O’Reilly. Three of them were O’Reilly’s teammates, who all really help each other lift their game. O’Reilly allowed 33 goals on 1,000 minutes of ice time.

He was also proficient on the penalty kill. He played 152 minutes when the other team had a man advantage. That’s more than anyone else on the Blues, even the defensemen. He had such an impact on this team, he definitely deserved to win the Selke Trophy.

NHL: 25 worst award snubs in the history of hockey: 22. Sean Couturier Selke Trophy 2018

Sean Couturier is a perennial Selke Trophy contender for a reason. He’s one of the best forwards in the league when it comes to playing both sides of the ice. He plays for the Philadelphia Flyers, a team that has been known for its two-way play.

Traditional stats are hard to really tell the impact of a defensive forward, so many of the voters struggle to find the right pick. They went with the Los Angeles Kings Anze Kopitar. He was a leader in the faceoff circle, and he led the league in penalty kill time. While those are both somewhat important stats, it’s not really the top-tier stats for defensive forwards. Winning faceoffs is just one component of playing a two-way game. Honestly, it’s a pretty insignificant one.

The other stat voters used to target was the dreaded plus/minus. All the candidates in this year’s Selke Trophy race had high +/- numbers. Couturier, to be fair, was also helped by this since he had one of the best =/- in the league.

This was the fight between the three players who are always in this conversation. It’s Kopitar, Couturier, and Patrice Bergeron. Kopitar ended up taking it as this was a little early for the Flyers center, but it definitely should have gone to the new guy. Some voters made a push for the new guy, but they went with the guy you’d expect. Sometimes, we just want the new guy to win, like in 2018.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 21. Scott Stevens Norris Trophy 1994

Scott Stevens was one of the most feared defensemen in the history of the league. He’s a Hall of Famer and a three-time Stanley Cup Champion. He has a Conn Smythe Trophy and he’s been voted in the top ten in Norris Trophy voting 16 times. That’s insane. He was so good at everything. He knew what he had to do for those great New Jersey Devils teams. Many probably don’t remember the days when he was scoring 60-70 points every year. He transitioned his game because the Devils already had Scott Niedermayer, one of the best offensive defensemen of all time.

Yet, Stevens has never actually won the Norris Trophy. He was in second place for the Norris twice. The one that hurts the most is 1994. He and Ray Bourque were neck and neck for the award all season. They both got first place MVP votes. These were by far the two best defensemen in the league.

Stevens led the Devils to the best goal differential in the league. The Bruins had the luxury of playing in a division with the lowly Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes. Bourque had a ton of points this season, finishing the year with 91. Stevens had 78 for a Devils team that was known as a shutdown team thanks to Stevens.

So Stevens was shutting down opponents at an opportune clip while also adding a top-line forward’s amount of points on a team that came in without the serious expectations of other teams. Obviously, he deserved the Norris Trophy. Voters see all of the pretty points, and their vote changes. Stevens had the impact, and he deserved the trophy.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 20. Henrik Zetterberg Calder Trophy 2003

When looking at the Calder Trophy this century, there are a lot of memorable names on the list. Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin, Auston Matthews, and Cale Makar are all superstars in this league. There are some names on the list that didn’t exactly get to that superstar level. Jeff Skinner is a good player, but he has the worst contract in the NHL. Tyler Myers is a big defenseman who got paid, but the Vancouver Canucks regret it. Still, the weirdest name on the list is Barret Jackman.

To be fair to Jackman, he had a really good rookie season, but was he better than Henrik Zetterberg? In his first season, Zetterberg was playing everywhere. He had power-play time, penalty kill time, and he immediately fit in with a star-studded Detroit Red Wings team. He had 44 points on the season, but it was his 22 goals, with 16 coming at even strength, that had him in the conversation.

Zetterberg was doing the most was the time he was given. He immediately made an impact with a Red Wings team that was looking to make strides towards a championship.

This was a situation where the voters still had that “old school” mentality where they valued perceived shutdown defenders over what Zetterberg did as a shutdown forward. Both Zetterberg and Jackman had a huge impact on the ice, but Zetterberg was also providing direct scoring. Jackman only had 18 points on the season despite having a lot of talent on that Blues team. The Blues lost Chris Pronger for most of the season, so Jackman had that going for him. Still, Zetterberg deserved to win Rookie of the Year.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 19. Bernie Parent Hart Trophy 1974

The mid-70s Philadelphia Flyers was the one time in that franchise’s history where they were absolutely dominant. They’ve come close since then, with the team from 5-10 years ago playing well and a team led by Eric Lindros in the 90s looking like they were on the way to setting trends, but they never won the big one. This Flyers team made it to the semifinals for six straight seasons and won two Stanley Cups along the way.

Bobby Clarke won the 1975 Hart Trophy before leading the team to the Stanley Cup. Well, was it really Clarke who was leading the team? Don’t get us wrong, he had a great season, but Bernie Parent was the reason the Flyers were winning games. Let’s not focus on that. Let Clarke have his trophy. The one we want was in 1974.

Parent was dominant for the Flyers in the late-60s, but they traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He would then learn from the legend Jacque Plante, and he eventually requested a trade out of Toronto. He went to play in the World Hockey Association before Philly traded for Parent again in 1973.

Parent went on to win the Vezina and Conn Smythe Trophies. However, Phil Esposito won the MVP.

Parent was the best in every statistic. He played 72 games in net, which was a league-high. He had a 1.89 goals-against average, which was a league-high. His .932 save percentage was the best in the league. In fact, he beat Tony Esposito, Phil’s brother, who was second in the league. Parent also led the league with 12 shutouts. He did everything a goaltender possibly could to win MVP.

NHL: 25 worst award snubs in the history of hockey: 18. Lorne “Gump” Worsley Conn Smythe 1968

This one takes us back into the heyday of great hockey. The late 60s is when hockey was ramping up again. The league added six teams all at once in 1967. That really brought the competition down right away before the league’s talent level caught up. Still, don’t take away anything from the champion that season, the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal was placed in a division with the Original Six teams, and they beat the Black Hawks and Bruins on the way to the Stanley Cup.

In the Final, it was no contest. They formatted the league so the winner of the East would face the winner of the West, which was basically all of the expansion teams. The St. Louis Blues came out of it, and the Canadiens just dominated them in the Final. The Blues lost every single game.

So it would make sense that someone on the Montreal Canadiens would easily win the award. Would it be Yvan Cournoyer, who led all of the Canadiens in points for the postseason. Maybe a 22-year-old Jacques Lemaire would be the winner of the Conn Smythe, who played a big role despite his age. At the end of the day, it makes the most sense to give it to Lorne “Gump” Worsley, who was great in net.

Instead, they gave it to Glenn Hall. Wait, what? They gave it to the goalie who got swept in the Final? We get it. The voters probably had feelings towards Hall for carrying an expansion team to the Final. However, this award isn’t supposed to be a feel-good story. This is supposed to be a telling of who was the best player in the postseason. Worsley had a better save percentage, a better GAA, and he had just as many shutouts. Hall carried the Blues to the Final, but he failed in the championship round.

NHL: 25 worst award snubs in the history of hockey: 17. Jaromir Jagr Hart 2000

Jaromir Jagr was the league MVP in 1999. He scored 127 points, the most in the league, for a Pittsburgh Penguins team that was headed to a new era. He came into the league in 1999-00 as the favorite to win the award again. He certainly deserved it. Jagr scored 96 points, which led the league. He did this despite playing just 63 games. A lot of times, players will be disqualified if they miss significant time, but Jagr was so good in the other games, he still proved himself to be the best scorer in the league.

Jagr came in second in Hart Trophy voting in one of the closest votes for MVP in history. Chris Pronger had 25 first-place votes and Jagr had 18 first-place votes. Pronger won the Hart Trophy with 396 voting points. Jagr had 395. The real decision for the MVP came to the person who voted for Steve Yzerman, who came in ninth overall.

Jagr was so close to winning another MVP, and Jagr would never win another Hart Trophy in his career. He was traded to the Washington Capitals one year later. He eventually left to play for the New York Rangers. He came in second again for the Hart Trophy in 2006, but that was the last time he was a finalist.

To make up for lost time, Jagr was playing 23 minutes per game. He was playing hard on a nightly basis. Pronger was one of the greats, and he was the last defenseman to win the Hart Trophy. Jagr was just as deserving. It’s hard to be really mad about Pronger winning, but we’d pick Jagr by a nose.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 16. Rod Brind’Amour Conn Smythe 2006

The Conn Smythe Award doesn’t get enough love when it comes to award snubs lists. This is one of the awards that voters get wrong the most. For one, they don’t have time to think. They give voters the same amount of time they have to vote for the Three Stars they vote on a nightly basis. So, they give voters a chance to think for about 30 seconds about who was the MVP of the postseason. This isn’t even the Stanley Cup Final MVP like in baseball. This is the MVP of the entire playoffs.

How can a voter really establish that much information that quickly? That’s why three types of players win this award. The star player, the goalie, and the storyline are the only players who have a chance at this award. That would be fine if they didn’t get it wrong so many times. That’s what happened in 2006. Cam Ward was THE story and THE goalie for the Carolina Hurricanes, a recent expansion team that is now on its way to a Stanley Cup Championship.

However, to say that anyone had as much of an impact on that championship season as Rod Brind’Amour was just mistaken. He was the captain of the team, holding some of the most important duties of the team. He scored the most goals on the Hurricanes despite also spending a ton of time in the other end stopping goals from getting past Ward.

What’s most impressive is he played 23 minutes per night. That’s unheard of for a forward. Brind’Amour was doing everything. He was shutting the other team down on the penalty kill. His power-play prowess led directly to goals, six times scoring the goal himself. He also had four game-winning goals. He had the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Sabres. He had the game-winning goal in Game 1 of the Final against the Oilers. The latter of which came with 30 seconds left in the 3rd period and the game tied. He had ice in his veins this postseason, and he deserved to be showered with glory.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 15. Nathan Mackinnon Hart Trophy 2018

2018 was a strange year for awards. It was a stud year for the Calder Trophy with Mathew Barzal, Charlie McAvoy, Brock Boeser, and Clayton Keller all deserving of first-place votes. Victor Hedman and Drew Doughty went head to head for the Norris Trophy. Pekka Rinne beat out the youngsters Connor Helleybuck and Andrei Vasilevskiy for the Vezina Trophy. The most interesting race was for the Hart Trophy.

The three finalists for the award were the Devils Taylor Hall, the Kings Anze Kopitar, and the Avalanche Nathan MacKinnon. Hall was great for the Devils, but his point streak is really the catalyst for his MVP hype, and the fact that he dragged the Devils to the playoffs only to get beaten in five games by the Tampa Bay Lightning is what got him in the conversation in the first place.

However, is the MVP supposed to go to a player that dragged his team, or is it supposed to go to the best player? Nathan MacKinnon was starting to build on a superstar resumé. He also dragged the Colorado Avalanche into the playoffs, and he wasn’t taken the horse to slaughter like Hall was. People might not realize now, but the Avalanche were not expected to make the postseason that year. They had missed for three years in a row.

MacKinnon has become one of the best players in the league, and some might consider him the best player. However, he hasn’t been able to win an MVP since. Now, he’s facing a prime that comes alongside the primes of Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews. He might never get that Hart Trophy, and it’s sad he missed out on it in 2018.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 13. Wayne Gretzky Calder Trophy 1980

This one will have a lot of people scratching their heads. How did Wayne Gretzky not get the Calder Trophy? There is no way that another rookie was better than Gretzky, right? Well, Gretzky was technically the best rookie, but he wasn’t eligible for the Calder Trophy because of a technicality.

Gretzky had 137 points in 1980, his first season in the NHL. Yet, Ray Bourque was named the winner of the award (not a bad replacement, to be honest). Since Gretzky played for one year in the World Hockey Association, he was considered a professional player not eligible as a rookie.

He was eligible for the Hart Trophy. Wayne Gretzky won the league MVP in his first year in the NHL. It was clear he was something special right off the bat. He just always seemed like he had an advantage over the rest of the league at all times. Of course, he joined a stacked Edmonton Oilers team, but it helped he is the greatest player in the history of the league.

So the league MVP was a first-year player, but he didn’t win the Rookie of the Year. What a strange turn of events. Rookies have only rarely won the MVP in any sports. Ichiro Suzuki did it in baseball. Wilt Chamberlain and Wes Unseld did it in the NBA. Jim Brown did it in the NFL. We were robbed of it happening in the NHL. There has been no player to win the Calder and Hart Trophies in the same year, and it was a robbery.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 12. Nicklas Lidstrom Hart Trophy 2006

Nicklas Lidstrom is one of the best, if not the best defenseman to ever play the game of hockey. Over his 20-year career, he won the Norris Trophy seven times. He was a finalist four other times. He was the defenseman of the era, taking over for Ray Bourque and Scott Stevens before him. His ability to be great offensively and great defensively at the same time hasn’t been matched since. This is the type of defenseman a guy like Cale Makar wants to become.

Despite being one of the best players in the league for most of his career, Lidstrom was never given the light of day when it came to MVP voting. There was nobody who could dominate a game like Lidstrom, yet he wasn’t considered one of the most important players in the league. The most egregious example of this was in 2006.

Lidstrom had 80 points that season, a career high. It didn’t help that there was an explosion of points that season. Seven players had over 100 points. The MVP voters just picked the two players who had the most points (Joe Thornton and Jaromir Jagr) instead of going for the player with the biggest impact. The Red Wings were the best team in the league. They won 58 games, five more than anyone in the Western Conference.

Lidstrom was the best player on the best team. When looking at the 2005-06 season, the best player in the league was Nicklas Lidstrom. He deserved the MVP.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 11. Paul Coffey Norris Trophy 1984

Another defenseman who was snubbed out of his award was Paul Coffey. He is probably the best offensive defenseman in the history of the league. He left some to be desired in his own end. In 1984, the Edmonton Oilers might be one of the best teams of all time. The team already had Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Grant Fuhr, and Jari Kurri, but add in Paul Coffey who took another step in his legacy, and we see how he should have won the Norris Trophy.

Coffey scored 40 goals and had 126 points. That was second in the entire league behind Wayne Gretzky’s 206 points. Coffey should have won the Norris Trophy in a landslide. Instead, the voters picked Washington Capitals defenseman Rod Langway. They went with a defensive defenseman over a premier offensive defenseman.

This was clearly a difference of opinion. There was a player who was such an impact on the offensive side of the puck. You know, the one where they score the goals and stuff. On the other end, it wasn’t like the Oilers allowed a ton of goals. They were too busy scoring to allow the goals.

Some say that voters have made points too important in awards voting. In this instance, points weren’t important enough. Langway made a huge impact on the Capitals, but Coffey likely lost some of his shine because of how much talent was on the Oilers.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 10. Mike Green Norris Trophy 2009

Mike Green was the “Paul Coffey” of his time. He was one of, if not the best offensive defenseman in the league for a spell. His career’s peak didn’t last as long as Coffey, but he too was snubbed of the Norris Trophy.

In this era of defensemen, the offensive defenseman is not always appreciated like they should. Some are lifted up to new heights, like Victor Hedman or Brent Burns. Then, there are others like Dougie Hamilton or John Carlson who don’t always get the recognition they deserve. Mike Green falls under that in 2009.

Green had more than a point per game in 2009. He had 31 goals as a defenseman. Green was the catalyst in the Washington Capitals playing so well that season. This wasn’t a Capitals team that was a guarantee to make the playoffs like they are now. Yet, this time, the Capitals won the Southeast Division.

This wasn’t the only snub that Mike Green felt in 2009. Late in the year, he was left off Team Canada for the 2010 Olympics. Again, a player who is good at offense is punished for being good at offense. However, this was the year of the Golden Goal, as they needed a Sidney Crosby overtime goal to win the gold medal. If the Canadians had Mike Green, he might have helped the team win the gold medal beforehand.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 9. Pavel Bure – Hart Trophy 2001

In 2001, Pavel Bure was the best player in the world. He was dominant for the Vancouver Canucks, then he went to the Florida Panthers and was even better. He did everything possible to drag that team as far as it could go.

This one is a little harder to argue for first place. The snub here is the clear disrespect of Pavel Bure’s accomplishments. The Panthers were not good, but Bure did everything he could. He scored 59 goals that season. The rest of the Panthers team had 141. For context, Joe Sakic won the MVP with 54 goals. The rest of the Avalanche had 216 goals.

Bure’s next closest teammate in points was Victor Kozlov, who had 55 less than Bure. The Russian Rocket was a one-man show in South Florida. Yet, he got ninth in voting? Is this for real? We seem to take the “only players in the playoffs deserve a spot in the Hart Trophy race” debate.

It’s hard to call this a 100% “snub”, but Bure finishing 9th is a travesty. He was one of the top players in the game that season. If he was on literally 25 other teams, he probably wins the MVP award. He was so good, and he needed no help. He deserved better.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 8. Dominik Hasek Vezina Trophy 1996

Dominik Hasek won six Vezina Trophies over his career. It was the 1995-96 award that really hurts. It’s clear the voters took wins and losses as a goalie stat. Some still think of wins and losses as a goalie stat. The 1995-96 Buffalo Sabres should prove how little wins are a goalie stat. Hasek was the league leader in save percentage. He was also the league leader in losses despite leading the league in goals saved above average and goalie point shares.

Everything said that Hasek was the best goalie in the league. Unfortunately, he was on a dreadful team. The Sabres were allowing 35 shots per 60 minutes when Hasek was in the net. He stopped more than 2,000 pucks that season.

This was the one season between 1994 and 1999 that Hasek didn’t win the Vezina Trophy. Obviously, the losses were the one reason that the voters didn’t pick Hasek. He wasn’t any less of a goalie. His advanced analytics showed he was still the best goalie in the league.

When looking at the voting, it’s even crazier that Hasek finished the season eighth in Vezina voting. Jim Carey won the award for the Washington Capitals. He had a pretty good season, but he was clearly not the best player at his position. The Lightning’s Darren Puppa was the only goalie that was even close to Hasek’s save percentage, and he finished third in Vezina voting. Hasek was the best goalie in the league, and he deserved another Vezina despite his win-loss record.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 7. Marcel Dionne Hart Trophy 1980

Marcel Dionne is one of the forgotten superstars of this era in the NHL. He started his career as the face of the Howe-less Detroit Red Wings, but then he became frustrated and he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. He immediately dominated and became one of the premiere scorers in the history of the game.

Dionne went to the Kings in 1976, but by 1978 he was one of the best players in the league. He came in third for MVP in 1979, losing to the Islanders’ Bryan Trottier. Trottier pushed Mike Bossy to the league lead in goals that season, beating out Dionne by 10 goals for the lead. The next season, Dionne went into the season as one of the favorites to win the Hart. And he had an even better season than he had the year before.

Dionne scored 137 points, the same amount as Wayne Gretzky. The Great One was a rookie at the time. Dionne squeaked out the goals lead. He was also slightly better than Gretzky at defense. Dionne was deserving of the MVP that season. Gretzky was great, but it was clear that he was just as good as Dionne, and he was going to be an MVP very often from there on out. He also had the best supporting cast. While that shouldn’t hurt Coffey for the Norris Trophy, when it comes to the Most Valuable Player, it has to be considered in close races.

Gretzky was a boom or bust player in his rookie season. Dionne was carrying the Kings to new heights. Sure, the Kings were below Hockey .500, but somehow so were the Oilers. They both made the playoffs. This should show the ability that Dionne was bringing every night. Unfortunately, Dionne never won the Hart Trophy, as Gretzky cornered the market on those in the 80s.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 6. Mike Modano Calder Trophy 1990

Mike Modano was one of the biggest stars in the league in the 90s. It helped that he was one of the best American players we’ve had in a very long time. He was the star of a non-traditional hockey market that became a perennial powerhouse and eventual Stanley Cup winner. He was everything a Gary Bettman dream is made of. Before all that, he failed to win the Rookie of the Year despite being very deserving of the award.

Modano was the first-overall pick in the 1989 NHL Draft. The number-one pick won the Calder Trophy surprisingly few times. Modano came close, however. As a 19-year-old, Modano scored 75 points for the Minnesota North Stars. It was a stacked rookie class, but Modano seemed to have a leg up. He beat out Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brind’amour, and Mark Recchi in the voting, but he ended up second in the voting with Russian sniper Sergei Makarov winning the Calder.

Listen, Marakov was a very good player in his time, but he was literally 31 years old in 1990. The Kirill Kaprizov debate was huge last season, but he ended up winning the Calder Trophy. However, 31 years old is beyond fair to call a hockey player a rookie. This is the Hideki Matsui of arguments. Modano was a teenager, and he still had just as good of a season.

Modano had more goals than Marakov. He only had 11 fewer points. Modano deserved the award. It’s not like Kaprizov, who was head and shoulders above every other rookie last season. Here, Modano was right on the cusp of Marakov despite being a decade younger.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 5. Erik Karlsson Norris Trophy 2016

Erik Karlsson isn’t talked about as one of the best defensemen in the league since he’s been traded to the San Jose Sharks, but when he was with the Ottawa Senators, there was no doubt that he was at the top of the list. He could be dominant on the offensive end without losing anything on the other side of things. Karlsson was beyond great. In 2016, it looked like he would be the obvious choice as the Norris Trophy.

So, how did Drew Doughty end up winning the award? Karlsson had 66 points, and he was still at the peak of his powers. He was 25 years old and he already had two Norris Trophies to his name. This was a clear moment of voter fatigue.

Karlsson led the league in assists. No, this wasn’t just leading defensemen in assists. He led all players with 66 assists in 2016. He also played just under 29 minutes per game. Karlsson was on the ice for basically half of every single game.

This was one of those places where the voters felt Doughty was “owed” the Norris Trophy because it was his “time”. That’s not how this should work. Karlsson was the best defenseman in the league that year, but the voters chose someone else. Maybe there was an assumption that Karlsson would keep winning Norris Trophies, and taking one away from him would be okay. He’s never won another Norris, and now it’s unlikely it will ever happen again.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 4. Martin Brodeur – Conn Smythe 2003

Martin Brodeur was lights out in 2003. He led the New Jersey Devils to the Stanley Cup. There are some who thought he was lifted by the likes of Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer, but in 2003 they were lifted by him. The Devils weren’t letting up the 18 shots they were in the trap days of Jacques Lemaire. There were a few low shot counts, but there were also multiple games where Brodeur had to make 30+ saves to win the game.

Brodeur had seven shutouts throughout the playoffs. There is no goalie in the history of the league that had this many shutouts in one playoff season. He literally broke a record for most games where he allowed zero goals in a game. He had three shutouts in the Stanley Cup Final against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. That includes a shutout in Game 7 of the Final.

Yet, the losing goalie was the one to win the Conn Smythe. Jean-Sebastian Giguere was great up until the Final. He helped get the Ducks to Game 7. However, it’s not like there wasn’t a great player on the other side. Brodeur had one of the best goaltending performances in the history of the playoffs. And yet, the Devils netminder didn’t get the award for the best player in the playoffs.

Giguere was great, but the Devils won and the Ducks didn’t. Brodeur was the better goalie in the Final when the two were facing off. There’s a reason this is the last player from a losing team to win the Conn Smythe Trophy. It should go to the best player in the playoffs, and that player has to be someone who wins it all.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 3. Roberto Luongo Vezina Trophy 2004

Let’s get back to Martin Brodeur. While the voters took a Conn Smythe Trophy from him in 2003, the voters came back and gifted him a Vezina Trophy. Seems like a fair trade, if you ask us. In 2003-04, Brodeur was really good, but Roberto Luongo was undoubtedly the best goalie in the world. What he did for the Vancouver Canucks that season was untouchable.

This is another tragic case where one of the best of his era ended up winning no awards. Luongo felt like one of the best goalies in the league for a decade. However, he never once won the Vezina Trophy. All of the stats traditional and advanced say that Luongo was the best goalie in the league.

Luongo had a 48.4 goals saved above average in 2003-04. Brodeur’s was 10.3. Not only did Brodeur win the Vezina Trophy, but he was a shoo-in because he was also a Hart Trophy finalist. Nothing against Brodeur, but this wasn’t even close to one of his best seasons. Maybe he got a little too much credit for Scott Stevens missing most of the season with concussion issues?

Luongo was carrying a bad Canucks team. Again, we gave the Vezina Trophy to the player who won the most games. On paper, that seems fine, but that’s not how hockey works, and we know that now. Luongo was the best goalie in the league in 2004, but that’s not how voters gave the trophies back then.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 2. Jarome Iginla Hart Trophy 2002

These two snubs for the Hart Trophy are undeniable. Let’s start with Jarome Iginla, who lost out on the Hart Trophy to Jose Theodore. The voters never pick a goalie to win the Hart Trophy. And now they are picking Theodore to win the award? In 2002? Iginla was the best player in hockey.

There is a rumor that one of the voters left Iginla off his ballot completely, which led to a tie in the standings. Was this done with impropriety in mind, or did someone actually think that Jarome Iginla, he of a league-leading 52 goals and a league-leading 96 points deserved to be left outside the top five for MVP consideration? It ended up going to a tie breaker, which Theodore won thanks to having more first-place votes.

It seems like something dubious happened with the 2002 MVP voting, and it led to the Writer’s Association changing the way people vote for the award. That’s what it took for Iginla to lose the award? It took someone leaving him off the ballot completely just to get him to lose.

It wasn’t just that Iginla was the best forward. Iginla was the best forward by a long shot. He had 11 more goals than anyone in the league. He was the most valuable player. The fact that he didn’t get the Hart Trophy doesn’t take that away from him.

25 Worst award snubs in NHL history: 1. Mario Lemieux Hart Trophy 1989

This was the rare occurrence where the best player in the league missed out on the MVP award in one of his best seasons. Mario Lemieux had 199 points in 1988-89. That is one of the top five point scoring seasons in this history of the league. Yet, he lost out of the MVP to Wayne Gretzky.

Gretzky was the storyline. Lemieux beat out Gretzky the season before, ending his He was just traded to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most shocking trades in the history of sports. Gretzky led the Kings to the playoffs in his first year there. He still led the league in assists with 114. Well, he was tied for the league lead with Lemieux. The only difference is Lemieux scored 85 goals that season to Gretzky’s 54.

Lemieux was so dominant this season for the Penguins. He was the best player in the league. However, the voters went for the player who had the best storyline in the NHL. It definitely brought more eyes to the game to have the man in Los Angeles win the top player award. However, Lemieux was just plain better.

Lemieux went on to win two more Hart Trophies while this was the last Hart Trophy Gretzky ever won. It was an interesting legacy to leave behind for the two best players to ever play the game. Their closest battle was also their most controversial.