Conn Smythe Trophy Tracker: Devils' Schmid a surprise candidate

The Conn Smythe Trophy tends to tell a broader story than its regular-season cousin, the Hart, about who really matters.

While the 82-game MVP is almost always a forward, you get much more of a cross-section when picking the most valuable player of the most important time of year.

No goalie claimed the Hart from 1963 through 1996, yet the Conn Smythe — first awarded in ’65 — was handed to a puckstopper 10 times in that stretch.

A defenceman hasn’t won the Hart since Chris Pronger in 2000, but six rearguards — including last year’s winner, Cale Makar — have claimed the Conn in that time.

We’re actually in a somewhat rare run right now whereby a forward hasn’t been named playoff MVP since 2019, when Ryan O’Reilly took home the hardware with the St. Louis Blues. (Calm down, Leaf fans).

That marks just the second time since Jean Beliveau won the first playoff MVP that we’ve gone at least three years without handing it to a forward, the most recent coming at the turn of the century when Scott Stevens, Patrick Roy, Nick Lidstrom and Jean-Sebastien Giguere won it in succession.

Could a non-forward take home the hardware again? There are certainly a lot of candidates from all areas of the ice after Round 1. I mean, the 16 best teams in the league playing high-stakes hockey with everybody shot out of a cannon to start the second season; that’s basically a pop-up hero factory.

With that in mind — and with a lot of hockey to go — let’s highlight a dozen candidates for the 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy before we drop the puck on Round 2.

(Note: We’re not predicting the future here; we’re ranking players based on what they’ve done in these playoffs with no regard for the how likely it is or isn’t he will still be playing in June).

1. G Akira Schmid, New Jersey Devils: Nobody else can top this list; not after Schmid entered the series with his team down 0-2 — with two losses at home, no less — and posted a .951 save percentage the rest of the way in a seven-game win over the New York Rangers. Pitching a shutout in Game 7 was just the cherry on top.

2. C Roope Hintz, Dallas Stars: One person averaged two points per game in the first round and it was the six-foot-three Finn playing on Dallas’ top line. Hintz watched his linemate Joe Pavelski get knocked out of the series with Minnesota in Game 1 on a hit by Matt Dumba, but still put up a stat-line of 5-7-12.

3. C Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers: Draisaitl had nine points after four games versus the Los Angeles Kings. He cooled down by merely scoring a goal in both Games 5 and 6.

4. G Philipp Grubauer, Seattle Kraken: The playoffs offer a clean slate and, boy, did Grubauer take advantage. After a subpar regular season, nobody made more saves than Grubauer (214) in the first round. The German’s solid play provided the foundation for Seattle’s huge upset of Colorado.

5. LW Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers: The Panthers made the blockbuster for Tkachuk last summer because they knew they had to change their playoff mix. Late in Game 4, when the Boston Bruins were about to take a 3-1 stranglehold on the series, there was Tkachuk, mixing it up with Linus Ullmark to the point the Bruins goalie deemed it necessary to crack the big winger with a couple right hands. One game later, Tkachuk was scoring the Game 5 overtime winner to key the big Florida comeback.

6. D Brandon Montour, Florida Panthers: Montour scored the first and final goals of regulation time in Florida’s incredible Game 7 overtime victory versus the Bruins. The second tally tied the game with 60 seconds to go and was Montour’s fifth of the series. That’s the most by a D-man in a single series since Ed Jovanovski scored that many for the Vancouver Canucks 20 years ago in a 2003 seven-game loss to the Wild.

7. C Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs: Matthews had four even-strength goals in six games versus Tampa Bay, including a crucial one in the Game 6 that closed out the series.

8. C Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers: McDavid posted seven road points in three games during Round 1, which tied him for the league lead with teammate Evan Bouchard and Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen.

9. D Morgan Rielly, Toronto Maple Leafs: Remember when Rielly was having a disappointing regular season? The 29-year-old defenceman played likely the best hockey of his career against the Lightning, registering seven even-strength points — more than any D-man save Colorado’s Devon Toews — and his three goals were just one shy of the four he put up from October to April.

10. G Jake Oettinger, Dallas Stars: Oettinger wasn’t bombarded by the Wild, but he allowed just three goals over the final three games of the series, all Dallas wins. This guy is sitting on a .944 save percentage in 13 career post-season starts.

11. C Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes: Aho scored four goals in six games versus the New York Islanders to take over the Hurricanes/Whalers all-time franchise lead for playoff goals with 22. The big challenge for this team is scoring enough goals and Aho is the best candidate to provide them.

12. D Evan Bouchard, Edmonton Oilers: Sure, eight of his 10 points game on the power play, but you just can’t average nearly two points per game as a D-man in the playoffs and not make this list.