NHL Power Rankings: Looking at each team’s MVP for this season
While there can only be one Hart Trophy winner each year, all 32 clubs in the league got an internal performance that’s worthy of highlighting. Ryan Dixon looks at the likely candidate for each team.
If you’ve been watching hockey all year — or making the quality decision to check out Sportsnet.ca a few times already this week — you’re well aware that the Hart Trophy talk is as wide open as it gets this season.
Both me, and Sportsnet pal, Sonny Sachdeva, have written about a league MVP race that, with just a week to go in the campaign, could still go to any one of a handful or even half-dozen guys. Three players — Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl and Nikita Kucherov — are in search of their second Harts; Jack Eichel is gunning for his first major individual award of any kind; Connor Hellebuyck is trying to become the third goalie this century to win the Hart, while Cale Makar is certainly a worthy candidate to become the first D-man to win MVP since Chris Pronger in 2000.
It’s hard to cast a bad ballot with that crew.
While there can only be one Hart Trophy winner each year, all 32 clubs in the league got an internal performance that’s worthy of highlighting. So, to close out our final power ranking of the regular season — don’t worry, we’ll have a playoff version next week — we’re identifying each team’s MVP for the 2024-25 campaign.
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1. Winnipeg Jets (53-21-4) Regardless of whether or not Hellebuyck wins the Hart, he’s almost sure to claim the Vezina for the second consecutive year and third time overall in his increasingly rare career. The last back-to-back Vezina winner was Martin Brodeur in 2008 and the only goalies to win more than three Vezinas in the Expansion Era are Dominik Hasek (six), Ken Dryden (five) and Brodeur (four).
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2. Dallas Stars (50-22-6) Thomas Harley has really stepped up in the second half of the year, with Miro Heiskanen largely out of the lineup. Harley has 27 points since Jan. 31, more than every D-man in the league save Cale Makar (35). He’s also playing nearly 25 minutes a night for this club during that stretch.
3. Washington Capitals (49-19-9) Alex Ovechkin is scoring 0.69 goals per game, which is the second-best mark in the league after Leon Draisaitl (0.73). That’s a 57-goal pace for a 39-year-old player. Right now, he’s got 10 more goals than any other Capital, despite missing five weeks with a fractured leg.
Had he missed any more time, it might be hard to call him Washington’s MVP. As it stands, he’s the guy.
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4. Toronto Maple Leafs (48-26-4) Mitch Marner is three points away from his first 100-point season. Front to back, he’s been the Leafs’ best player.
5. Vegas Golden Knights (47-22-9) Jack Eichel may not wind up a Hart finalist, but — given his extensive injury history and numerous trying seasons in Buffalo — this feels like a statement campaign for a 28-year-old who is eligible to ink a contract extension this summer.
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6. Los Angeles Kings (44-24-9) Darcy Kuemper’s numbers and where he ranks league-wide since Dec. 7: 37 games played (7th); 24 wins (3rd); .927 save percentage (2nd).
7. Colorado Avalanche (48-27-4) It’s really tempting to cop out and call Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar co-winners. You could certainly argue Makar’s season is more notable given he’s the first 30-goal defenceman since Mike Green in 2009. Still, MacKinnon has a real shot to be the first back-to-back Hart winner since Alex Ovechkin in the same 2008-09 season Green scored 31 for the Caps. We’ll give MacKinnon the slightest of nods over his teammate.
8. Tampa Bay Lightning (45-26-7) Andrei Vasilevskiy certainly has a case in this comeback season he’s put together, but it has to be Nikita Kucherov. He could wind up winning the Art Ross and Hart this year.
9. Carolina Hurricanes (46-27-4) Top centre Sebastian Aho plays over 20 minutes per night and sets the tone for the Canes.
10. Edmonton Oilers (45-28-5) Leon Draisaitl is going to win the Rocket Richard Trophy with his fourth career 50-goal season. Except for Alex Ovechkin, no other player has more than two 50-goal campaigns this century.
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11. St. Louis Blues (43-30-7) The real answer is probably in-season hire Jim Montgomery, but we’re not handing hardware to coaches here. Since Feb. 2, Robert Thomas leads the NHL in scoring with 42 points in 28 games.
12. Florida Panthers (45-29-4) Sam Reinhart has 20 fewer goals than the 57 he notched last year, but he’s still a point-per-game, all-situations player who doesn’t get hurt. That’s enough to make him the Cats’ MVP.
13. Minnesota Wild (43-29-7) Wednesday was a huge night in Wild land, as both Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek — who scored a hat trick — returned to the lineup after long absences. Kaprizov hadn’t played since Jan. 26 and, since that very same date, Filip Gustavsson has a .918 save percentage in 23 games. Brock Faber’s 25 minutes per night notwithstanding, it’s just hard to imagine somebody has played a larger role in Minnesota hanging onto a playoff spot with its two most important forwards on the shelf than Gustavsson
14. Ottawa Senators (42-30-6) Jake Sanderson is becoming an absolute stud in his third NHL season. He can handle tough defensive assignments and could nudge right up to 60 points this year thanks to a productive second half that’s seen him produce 19 points in his past 22 games.
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15. Montreal Canadiens (39-30-9) Really, this is Colorado light, with Nick Suzuki playing the Nathan MacKinnon role and Lane Hutson Montreal’s equivalent to Cale Makar. Coward that I am, I’ll pick the centre again, but it cannot be overstated how vital Hutson — especially in the second half — has been to the Canadiens’ surprising success.
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16. New Jersey Devils (41-30-7) Nico Hischier’s late push — 11 goals and 24 points in 21 contests since the 4 Nations Face-Off — is impressive, but the nod has to go to 88-point winger Jesper Bratt. On a team annually crushed by injuries, Bratt hasn’t missed a game in three years.
17. Calgary Flames (37-27-14) Dustin Wolf will surely be a Calder finalist and the goalie is most definitely Calgary’s MVP.
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18. Utah Hockey Club (36-30-12) Mikhail Sergachev is playing over 25 minutes per night during his first year with the franchise. He’s an indispensable member of UHC and will be for years to come.
19. Vancouver Canucks (36-29-13) Quinn Hughes’ 1.16 points per game tops all blue-liners, coming just a tiny sliver ahead of Cale Makar’s 1.15. He’s far and away Vancouver’s most important player.
20. Anaheim Ducks (35-35-8) Jackson LaCombe has been a revelation as an NHL sophomore. The 24-year-old defenceman plays 22 minutes per night on a team where nobody else sees 20 minutes a game. He plays on both special teams, and his 14 goals are more than all but 10 defencemen in the league.
21. Detroit Red Wings (36-34-7) Moritz Seider basically plays four minutes a night more than any other Red Wing. With respect to Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin, it’s hard to believe anybody on the team is more valuable game in, game out than the big German defenceman.
22. New York Islanders (34-32-11) Odds are the Islanders will finish the season without a 60-point player. Realistically, their MVP is still Ilya Sorokin in a year where he’ll be nowhere near the Vezina conversation.
23. Buffalo Sabres (35-36-6) Man, Tage Thompson can be a beast out there. He’s got 16 goals in his past 19 outings and is suddenly tied with William Nylander for second place in the NHL goals race with 44.
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24. Columbus Blue Jackets (35-33-9) Zach Werenski was a fringe Hart candidate at one point this season. He may have fallen out of that conversation, but he’s most definitely MVP of CBJ.
25. New York Rangers (36-35-7) The less said about this team the better, so let’s just give it to Adam Fox and move on with our day.
26. Pittsburgh Penguins (32-35-12) Sidney Crosby is far and away the Pens’ MVP and it’s probably a bad thing for the team to say it’s extremely hard to imagine that not being the case again next year, when he’s 38 years old.
27. Seattle Kraken (34-39-6) Brandon Montour’s 17 goals are the fourth-best total by any defenceman in the league. Throw in his 22 minutes per night and, on a club with no real dynamic threat up front, that’s enough to make him Seattle’s MVP.
28. Philadelphia Flyers (32-37-9) Travis Konecny has already established a new career high with 75 points. And the way he’s going — with seven assists in his past five games — he might finish as an 80-point guy.
29. Boston Bruins (32-38-9) David Pastrnak’s 63 points in the 2025 portion of the schedule leads the NHL. Whatever the solution is in Boston, the 28-year-old Czech winger will be a part of it.
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30. Nashville Predators (28-42-8) In a miserable year, Filip Forsberg has hit the 30-goal mark and is on track to play all 82 games for the second straight year. That’s awesome news for a guy two years removed from a frightening concussion in 2023.
31. Chicago Blackhawks (22-46-10) What a second half for Ryan Donato. Even after four games without a point, he’s notched 35 points in his past 33 contests and needs three goals to double his previous career best of 16.
32. San Jose Sharks (20-47-11) Even before his big five-point night on Wednesday, Macklin Celebrini was entrenched as the Sharks’ MVP.
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