NHL: 25 worst award snubs in the history of hockey
By Nick Villano
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.