Does Crosby Deserve This Season's Hart Trophy?
This week's question is:
As it stands right now, Sidney Crosby leads the NHL in points scored with 71. This means that he is favourite to win the Art Ross trophy, awarded to the player who finishes the regular season with the most points. He's already won the trophy once, back in 2006/07 when he totaled 120 points.
Of the last ten Hart Trophy winners, seven won the Art Ross Trophy the same year. To answer the second part of the question, most points does not necessarily equal the best player. The difficulty being that picking the league's MVP is subjective.
The Hart Trophy winner is chosen by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA), with individual voters submitting five names, these names are ranked in order of preference. By assigning points to each name, the NHL can then total up the points for each player and the most points gets the trophy.
Finishing with the most points doesn't necessarily make a player the most valuable to his team or to the league, but it does help. A lot. It's only natural that a player who contributes goals and assists will be considered to be a valuable member of that team.
Do the Hart and the Art Ross trophies need to be mutually exclusive? No. Sure the winner of one is usually the winner of both but this is for good reason. Based on the season so far Sidney Crosby deserves to win the Hart Trophy, not only is he scoring goals for the Penguins, but he's also contributing assists. Isn't that what defines a team player? Crosby is definitely the Pens' MVP, I'm not sure there's anyone in the league better. He deserves the Art Ross Trophy because he has the most points.
I'm not a member of the PHWA, but if asked (hint hint) I would definitely vote for Crosby if the voting was done today. Followed closely by Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Abdelkader and Nyquist. Biased? Yes.
'Should Sidney Crosby win a Hart Trophy? Does most points mean he's best?'First of all, let's clarify that Crosby already won the Hart Memorial Trophy in 2006/07 when he finished with 120 points, six more than Joe Thornton.
As it stands right now, Sidney Crosby leads the NHL in points scored with 71. This means that he is favourite to win the Art Ross trophy, awarded to the player who finishes the regular season with the most points. He's already won the trophy once, back in 2006/07 when he totaled 120 points.
Of the last ten Hart Trophy winners, seven won the Art Ross Trophy the same year. To answer the second part of the question, most points does not necessarily equal the best player. The difficulty being that picking the league's MVP is subjective.
The Hart Trophy winner is chosen by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA), with individual voters submitting five names, these names are ranked in order of preference. By assigning points to each name, the NHL can then total up the points for each player and the most points gets the trophy.
Finishing with the most points doesn't necessarily make a player the most valuable to his team or to the league, but it does help. A lot. It's only natural that a player who contributes goals and assists will be considered to be a valuable member of that team.
Do the Hart and the Art Ross trophies need to be mutually exclusive? No. Sure the winner of one is usually the winner of both but this is for good reason. Based on the season so far Sidney Crosby deserves to win the Hart Trophy, not only is he scoring goals for the Penguins, but he's also contributing assists. Isn't that what defines a team player? Crosby is definitely the Pens' MVP, I'm not sure there's anyone in the league better. He deserves the Art Ross Trophy because he has the most points.
I'm not a member of the PHWA, but if asked (hint hint) I would definitely vote for Crosby if the voting was done today. Followed closely by Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Abdelkader and Nyquist. Biased? Yes.
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