With just a month remaining in the 2024-25 regular season, the race for the playoffs is on, as are most of NHL’s individual awards.
While awards like the Vezina Trophy and Norris Trophy are becoming runaways, the battle of the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player has pitted two of the best offensive weapons against each other. Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl and Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon have been the frontrunners for the award for most of the season.
Currently, Draisaitl leads the NHL in goals, finding the back of the net 46 times in 64 games. The 29-year-old sits second in the league in scoring with 96 points, 15 ahead of Edmonton captain Connor McDavid.
MacKinnon is the only player thus far who has hit the century mark for points, having notched 102 points in 65 appearances, notching point No. 1,000 on Monday night. The Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native also leads the league with 75 assists.
With only a handful of games remaining before the playoffs, many are contemplating which of the two exceptional talents should be named MVP. MacKinnon took home the Hart last year and could become the first player since Alex Ovechkin in 2009 to win the award in consecutive seasons.
Draisaitl, meanwhile, earned league MVP honours in 2020, the same year he won the Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award.
The topic of conversation came up during the “Garbage Time” segment of Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE. Insider Frank Seravalli believes MacKinnon is leading the two-horse race.
Frank Seravalli: [MacKinnon] has been an absolute horse. The Hart Trophy race is going to be really interesting this year. We’ve talked about it. Obviously, Leon Drasaitl has thrown his hat into the ring, but I think MacKinnon has sort of pulled away here in the last little while. The way he’s played here in the last two seasons, if someone put a gun to my head and said, “Right now, best player on the planet,” It was McDavid without thinking for a long, long time. I think MacKinnon’s really giving a challenge to that.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here (Segment begins at 28:35)
