No Flame has ever won the Hart Trophy — can that change in 2017-18?
6 years ago
Some of the best players in NHL history have starred for the Calgary Flames. Legends like Jarome Iginla, Theo Fleury, Al MacInnis, and Lanny McDonald, to name just a few, have dawned Calgary’s red sweater.
Yet no Flames player has ever taken home the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player. Will that change in 2017-18? A review of Bodog shows oddsmakers aren’t overly confident with no Flames player listed among the top options.
Iginla is the franchise’s leader in games (1,219), goals (525) and points (1,095). He won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s leading goal scorer with 52 goals in 2001-02 and 41 in 2003-04. However, Iginla finished second in the Hart Trophy voting both seasons. In the former season, he finished with the same 434 total votes as Montreal goaltender Jose Theodore, but Theodore won the tiebreaker with three more first-place votes. In the latter season, Iginla was second to Tampa Bay’s Martin St. Louis. The Flames lost to St. Louis’ Lightning in that season’s Stanley Cup Final.
Johnny Gaudreau has led Calgary in scoring each of the past two seasons. He had 78 points in 2015-16 (30 G, 48 A) and 61 points a season ago (18 G, 43 A) when he did take home the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. Gaudreau was the first Calgary player to win that since Jiri Hudler did in 2014-15. Incidentally, five players have won both the Lady Byng and the Hart in the same season: Buddy O’Connor (1947-48), Bobby Hull (1964-65), Stan Mikita (1966-67 and 1967-68), Wayne Gretzky (1979-80) and Joe Sakic (2000-01).
What’s working against Gaudreau is that the Hart generally goes to one of the NHL’s leading scorers on one of its best regular season teams. That was the case last season with Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. He led the league with 100 points and the Oilers jumped to 103 points, their most since 1986-87. McDavid, still just 20 and recipient of an eight-year, $100 million extension this offseason, is the +150 favourite on Bodog odds to repeat as the Hart winner.
Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby is +250 to win a third Hart Trophy. He won in 2006-07 and 2013-14. Crosby finished a distant second to McDavid last year with 89 points but won the Rocket Richard Trophy with 44 goals. The only worry with Crosby is his history of concussions, and another could knock him out for weeks, although Crosby has managed to play at least 75 games the past four regular seasons.
Toronto’s Auston Matthews is +850 and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin +900 on Bodog Hart Trophy odds. Matthews (40 G, 29 A) appears on the same track as McDavid as Matthews won last year’s Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and his Maple Leafs are on the rise. Toronto hasn’t had a Hart winner since Ted Kennedy in 1954-55.
Ovechkin, Crosby’s primary rival that has yet to even reach the Conference Finals in his Hall of Fame career, has won the Hart Trophy three times, last in 2012-13. One thing to keep in mind regarding Ovechkin this season: He claims he will leave the Capitals to play for his native Russia in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The NHL owners and NHLPA couldn’t agree on going to the Games this year and the league is forbidding its players to do so, but Ovechkin doesn’t much care. That could cost him nine regular season games with Washington and severely hurt his Hart chances.
The goaltender with the shortest Hart odds is Montreal’s Carey Price at +2000. He won the Hart/Vezina double in 2014-15. The defenseman with the shortest odds is Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson at +2500. No blueliner has won it since Chris Pronger in 1999-2000.
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