Auston Matthews indeed has Hart.
Matthews was named the winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy on Tuesday night, deemed to be the most valuable player to his team by voters from the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
That he scored 60 goals – the first 60-goal season in a decade, and the first Maple Leaf to do so – was probably the tipping point in the minds of voters who placed him ahead of Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Matthews became the first Maple Leaf to win the Hart since Ted Kennedy did so in 1955 and third Leaf all-time. Babe Pratt did so in 1944.
The Leafs superstar also became the first player in franchise history to win the Ted Lindsay Award, which goes to the player deemed “most outstanding” as voted on by his fellow players, the members of the NHL Players’ Association. He eclipsed McDavid – who won the award last year – and Nashville defenseman Roman Josi.
In shattering Rick Vaive’s franchise record for goals in a single season, Matthews won his second Rocket Richard Trophy in a row in continuing to find creative ways to score. He could do it at even strength (44 goals, also leading the league) or the power play (16, fourth in the league), with his one-timer, off the rush, or in close. He had 10 game winners, fifth in the league.
He averaged 0.82 goals per game – the highest rate by any player in a single campaign (minimum: 50 games) since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96 (0.99) – and scored 19.23 per cent of the Maple Leafs’ total goals.
But there were other parts to his game that hit new heights. He won 691 faceoffs, 20th in the league, with a winning percentage of 56.2, 14th among players who had taken at least 500 draws.
He was also a hound when it came to retrieving the puck, his 92 takeaways was second to Alex Pietrangelo’s 93. And his 62 blocked shots were tops among Leafs forwards, and 14th in the league among forwards.
Matthews finished second to McDavid last year in Hart voting when McDavid was the unanimous choice.
The event was in Tampa’s Amalie Arena, home of the Lightning, who are in the Stanley Cup Final against the Colorado Avalanche in part because they defeated Matthews’ Leafs in the opening round.
This was the first in-person NHL awards show since the pandemic hit, but still smaller than the usual glitzy event in Vegas that it had become.
Many of the awards had already been handed out:
- Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins won the Frank J. Selke Trophy as top defensive forward as voted on by the PHWA.
- Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, as voted on by the league’s broadcasters.
- Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance and dedication to the sport, as voted on by the PHWA.
- Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship as voted on by the PHWA.
- Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings won the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award as determined by a panel from the league.
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