Hart Memorial Trophy
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Sport | Ice hockey |
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Awarded for | Most Valuable Player in regular season of the National Hockey League |
History | |
First award | 1924 |
Most wins | Wayne Gretzky (9) |
Most recent | Auston Matthews Toronto Maple Leafs |
The Hart Memorial Trophy, originally known as the Hart Trophy, is an annual award for the most valuable player to his team in the National Hockey League (NHL), voted by the members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. The original trophy was donated to the league in 1923 by David Hart, the father of Cecil Hart, the longtime head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. The Hart Trophy has been awarded 92 times to 56 different players since its beginnings in 1923–24.
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/FrankNighbor.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Elmer_Lach_with_Hart_Memorial_Trophy.jpg)
The Hart Memorial Trophy is named in honour of Canadian Dr. David Hart. Dr. Hart, who donated the original trophy to the NHL, was the father of Cecil Hart, a former Coach and General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens. The trophy was first awarded at the conclusion of the 1923–24 NHL season to Frank Nighbor of the original Ottawa Senators. The original Hart Trophy was retired to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1960, and the NHL began presenting a new trophy, which was dubbed the Hart Memorial Trophy in its place.[2] With the exceptions of Tommy Anderson, Al Rollins, and Jose Theodore, every eligible player who won the Hart Trophy (and retired) has been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Wayne Gretzky won the award a record nine times during his career, eight consecutively. He has been named MVP more times than any other player in the history of other three North American major professional leagues (Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association, and National Football League). Barry Bonds is second, having won the MVP award seven times in the National League of Major League Baseball (The American League also awards an MVP), although until the 1930s baseball players were only permitted to win the award one time which limited the number of times Babe Ruth could win. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the NBA MVP award six times, and before Gretzky, Gordie Howe held the record for the NHL having won the Hart 6 times. Gretzky and his Edmonton Oilers teammate Mark Messier are the only players to win the Hart Trophy with more than one team.[3] Peyton Manning won the NFL MVP 5 times. Only 5 players have won as many as 3: Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, Brett Favre, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers.
Players from the Montreal Canadiens have won the award sixteen times; players from the Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers are tied for second with twelve winners. Joe Thornton became the only Hart Trophy winner to have switched clubs during his winning campaign during the 2005–06 season, having played for both the Bruins and San Jose Sharks that year. The defenseman with the most trophy victories is Eddie Shore, who has four. By contrast, it is rare for a goaltender to win the award, which has happened only eight times in its history by 7 different goaltenders; Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek is the only two-time winner.
The voting is conducted at the end of the regular season by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, and each individual voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10-7-5-3-1 point(s) system.[4] Three finalists are named and the trophy is awarded at the NHL Awards ceremony after the playoffs. The closest the voting for the Hart Trophy has ever come was in the 2001–02 season, when Jose Theodore and Jarome Iginla tied in the total voting. The tiebreaker for choosing the Hart Trophy winner in such a case is number of first-place votes: Theodore claimed it, who had 86 first-place votes to Iginla's 82.[5]
In 2008, the NHL's official online shop came under criticism after they placed a T-shirt advertising Alexander Ovechkin as the award winner on sale a week before the results were revealed. A spokesperson for the league said "in an effort to offer our fans the merchandise they want in a timely manner following an event such as the NHL Awards, our licensees prepare product for all possible outcomes. In this situation, the link for one of the possible products became live early through an error by our e-commerce provider."[6] Ovechkin was later confirmed to be the winner.
Winners
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Nels_Stewart.jpg/200px-Nels_Stewart.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Bobby_Clarke_1983.jpg/200px-Bobby_Clarke_1983.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Wgretz_edit2.jpg/200px-Wgretz_edit2.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Mario_Lemieux_2001.jpg/200px-Mario_Lemieux_2001.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Sergei_Fedorov_%282894208988%29.jpg/200px-Sergei_Fedorov_%282894208988%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Blues_vs._Oilers-9046_%286645432023%29.jpg/200px-Blues_vs._Oilers-9046_%286645432023%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Ovechkin_reupload.jpg/200px-Ovechkin_reupload.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/SidneyCrosby.jpg/200px-SidneyCrosby.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Joe_Thornton_2016.jpg/200px-Joe_Thornton_2016.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Connor_McDavid_2-FEB-2022.jpg/200px-Connor_McDavid_2-FEB-2022.jpg)
C | Centre |
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LW | Left Wing |
D | Defence |
RW | Right Wing |
G | Goaltender |
- ^ The trophy was not awarded in the 2004–05 season due to the league's lockout.
Multi-time winners
See also
References
- General
- "Hart Memorial Trophy". National Hockey League. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- Hockey Hall of Fame. "Legends of Hockey - NHL Trophies - Hart Memorial Trophy". Legends of Hockey. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- "NHL Hart Memorial Trophy Winners". Hockey Reference. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- Hollander, Zander; Bock, Hal, eds. (1970). The Complete Encyclopedia of Ice Hockey. Prentice-Hall Inc. ISBN 0-13-159905-4.
- Specific
- ^ "Hart Memorial Trophy". Official website of Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- ^ Hollander & Bock 1970, p. 311.
- ^ "99 Reasons Why Wayne Gretzky is "The Great One"". National Hockey League. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
- ^ Dolezar, Jon (April 20, 2003). "Foppa shows the most Hart". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on 2007-12-05. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Hart Memorial Trophy". National Hockey League. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ "Did NHL Shop Reveal Ovechkin as Hart Winner?". The Sports Network. June 6, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-06-10. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)