5 players who should be serious Hart Trophy candidates but won’t

The NHL’s awards season is just around the corner, and there are plenty of players worthy of winning the Hart Trophy this season. We know who the major names are, the most popular of which would be Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, David Pastrnak, Nikita Kucherov, and Quinn Hughes, just to name a few.

All of the above names have more than shown us why they are so valuable to their respective franchises, and they are also primary reasons the Toronto Maple Leafs, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Vancouver Canucks are among the league’s best hockey teams. But there are other names who haven’t received as much recognition, mainly because their respective teams were either fringe contenders in 2023-24 and may not have made the playoffs at all. 

Some players should be Hart Trophy candidates but won’t be

Instead of talking about Matthews, MacKinnon, McDavid, Pastrnak, Kucherov, and Hughes, among other big names, let’s instead discuss five other players who should be serious contenders for the Hart Trophy but won’t be for a myriad of reasons. 

One reason is that a few of those listed in the following slides just didn’t score at an elite pace, even if they were the reason their team would be in the playoffs or at least had a chance to make the postseason. Another could be that, despite putting up a legendary stat or two, their overall points total just wasn’t there. 

One particular player jumped out more than any other because they were instrumental in keeping their team alive until the absolute last game of the season. They weren’t a high-scoring forward, but instead, their play kept one of the NHL’s lowest-scoring teams in the hunt. But before we talk about them, let’s first check out a former Conn Smythe recipient. 

Jonathan Marchessault, Vegas Golden Knights

Like almost everyone else on this list, Jonathan Marchessault is playing for either a wild card team or a fringe top-three squad, and it’s why he won’t get much consideration for the Hart. As in the case of most of the players listed in the next slides, it’s not fair since nobody helped carry what became an up-and-down Vegas Golden Knights team for a significant portion of the 2023-24 season. 

Through April 15th, Marchessault has lit up the scoreboard with 42 goals and a 16.4 shooting percentage. With five game-winning goals, Marchessault was one of the go-to guys when Vegas needed to break a tie alongside Jack Eichel and Mark Stone, but you can argue that Marchessault was the Team MVP and that the Knights wouldn’t be in the playoffs this season without him. 

When you look at his points total through the 80 games he’s played heading into the final matchup of the year, he registered just 69 points, and that will keep him out of the running for the Hart. We know how valuable points totals are in these votes, but Marchessault was the key factor to ensure the Knights earned a chance to defend their championship. 

It’s also worth mentioning Marchessault was the key contributor for the Knights in their Stanley Cup Final win over the Florida Panthers, as he won the Conn Smythe Award last season. He’s definitely a great player whose performances were nothing short of underrated in 2023-24. 

Cam Talbot, Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings have experienced perhaps the biggest roller coaster of a season among all playoff contenders not named the Edmonton Oilers, but Cam Talbot, for the most part, has been the one constant. While the Kings are 16th in goals scored throughout their first 81 games, they are fourth in goals allowed, and Cam Talbot’s consistency throughout the year is one major reason why. 

In his latest season, Talbot posted a so-so 26-20-6 record, but he also added three shutouts to a 0.915 save percentage, a 2.47 GAA, and a healthy 0.627 quality starts percentage. What’s even more amazing is that Talbot was coming off of a not-so-hot campaign in Ottawa, where his GAA sat at 2.93 and his save percentage dipped to 0.898. 

Anyway, let’s stay in the present, and with one more game to go at the time of this writing, Talbot has also allowed just eight goals above expected at even strength. He’s also posted a 0.914 save percentage while opponents were on the power play, allowing just 21 goals on 243 shots. In case you were wondering, the save percentage is the best mark of his career since the 2013-14 season. 

Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins

Let’s be honest: The Pittsburgh Penguins had such little hope remaining back in March that they moved Jake Guentzel at the trade deadline, signifying no playoffs for 2024. Then they embarked on a late-season run, and despite his age and the fact Pittsburgh’s scoring was hopeless for most of the season, Sidney Crosby was the man who fueled the Pens.

With a game to go in the 2023-24 season, Crosby is easily pacing the team with 92 points and 42 goals, plus a 15.3 shooting percentage. Pittsburgh’s scoring has picked up since the trade deadline, with Crosby lighting the way with 29 points and 10 goals between March 9th and April 15th. 

While he hasn’t scored any game-winners in that span, Crosby has also converted 19.2 percent of his shots into goals, one of the best marks in the NHL in that frame. And in some crucial outings between April 1st and April 15th, eight games total, Crosby played his best hockey overall, with seven goals and 13 points. 

Going back to March 24th, when Pittsburgh started to climb back into the hunt in an overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche, Crosby has 23 points and nine goals, plus a 25.7 shooting percentage in those 12 games. If he’s proven anything this season, it’s that he is still one of the game’s best when the season is on the line, making him worthy of some Hart votes.

Charlie Lindgren, Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals shouldn’t be anywhere near the playoffs in the final week of what has been a strange 2023-24 season for the Eastern Conference. Many fans will point to Alex Ovechkin’s late-season resurgence, and they have every right to. But let’s instead point to the netminder who kept this team in games so they could sneak away with just enough wins to at least put them in a position to qualify for the playoffs. 

As I write this, the Capitals are heading into their final game of the season vs. the Philadelphia Flyers, and they are sporting a minus-38 in the goals scored vs. goals allowed ratio. Their 218 goals through 81 games put them at 28th in the league, and their 1B/backup goaltender Darcy Kuemper’s numbers are nowhere near Lindgren’s. 

Kuemper doesn’t even have a winning record, while Lindgren is 24-16-7 with a 0.910 save percentage, a 2.71 GAA, six shutouts, and just four goals allowed above expected at even strength. 

There is nobody else in the NHL even remotely more suited to be an unprecedented candidate for the Hart this season. Lindgren probably won’t even get a vote for the award, but you can argue few have been more valuable to their very average team by giving them a chance to play postseason hockey. 

(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)