Nathan MacKinnon‘s career year helped him finally get his hands on some elusive hardware.
The Avalanche’s superstar scorer took home the first Hart Memorial Trophy of his career following a magnificent 51-goal, 89-assist (140 points) season, the league announced at the NHL Awards on Thursday.
All three of those marks represented career highs for the 11-year NHL vet.
“From where we started to where we all are now, it’s pretty cool,” MacKinnon said. “Especially with my dad, we have such a special connection in hockey. I’m sure he never thought I’d get to this point, I never thought I did either.”
He beat out Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov for the award.
Though he didn’t lead the league in goals, assists or points, he had arguably the most balanced season, finishing fourth in goals, third in assists and second in points. He also piled the pressure onto opposing goaltenders, leading the league in shots on goal with 405.
He had two separate 19-game point streaks this season, both serving as the longest of any player this year. The first spanned from Nov. 20 to Dec. 27 and the second from Feb. 13 to March 26. During those streaks, he notched 36 (13G, 23A) and 38 (13G, 25A) points respectively.
This was his fourth time being named a finalist for the award after nearly earning the distinction in 2018, 2020 and 2021. He came particularly close to walking away with the honours in 2018 and 2020, coming within 70 votes of Taylor Hall in 2018 and within 147 of Leon Draisaitl in 2020.
But it was no contest for MacKinnon on Thursday, as his 1,740 votes, including 137 first-place votes, blew the second-place Kucherov out of the water, as the Lightning superstar finished with 1,269 votes and 50 first-place votes.
“It feels good, the history of the awards is the most special thing,” MacKinnon said to Sportsnet’s Sean Reynolds after winning the award. “All my favourite players have their names on those trophies. Definitely a cool thing.”
The 28-year-old becomes the third Avalanche player to win the Hart after Joe Sakic won in 2001 and Peter Forsberg did the same in 2003.
MacKinnon also won the Ted Lindsay Award for the time of his career on Thursday as the most outstanding player voted on by other members of the NHLPA.
“Season’s over, I gotta get back to work and hopefully I have a good season next year,” the now-award-winning MacKinnon added.