Trophy Tracker: Hart

To mark the beginning of the 2021-22 regular season, NHL.com is running its first installment of the Trophy Tracker series this week. Today, we look at the race for the Hart Trophy, given annually to the player judged most valuable to his team in a vote by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Connor McDavid is embarking on what could be the most important season of his young career.
The 24-year-old center has the chance to prove he can win at the highest levels of the game, both in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers and internationally with Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
McDavid was selected to participate in his first Olympics, when he, along with Pittsburgh Penguins center
Sidney Crosby
and Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo were the first names submitted to be part of the Canada men's hockey team.
McDavid has also been selected as the favorite to win the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP this season by a panel of NHL.com staff members. He won the award last season after leading the League in scoring with 105 points (33 goals, 72 assists) in 56 games.
The Oilers have reached the postseason in each of the past two seasons, but were swept by the Winnipeg Jets in the Stanley Cup First Round last season after losing 3-1 in a best-of-5 series against the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers.
"For him it's not about individual stuff, it's about team stuff," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said of McDavid. "He wants the team to take the next step. He understands his role on this team, which is a big part of it. Part of it is the play, part of it is the captain. There's a big role to fill on there, but he wants the team to have success. He understands that everybody else has to do their job and has to chip in just like he does. A player like that, he's confident he can play his game but he wants our team to be in the right place too and that's a big part of his mindset right now."
McDavid was selected first on 13 of the 17 ballots and received 79 voting points, 20 more than Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, who was selected first on the remaining four ballots.
McDavid, who also won the Hart Trophy in 2016-17, won the Art Ross Trophy as the leading scorer in the NHL last season for the third time in his six seasons. He averaged 1.88 points per game, 22nd all-time for a single season (minimum 50 games played) and the highest since Mario Lemieux averaged 2.05 points per game with the Penguins in 1991-92.
McDavid has scored 100 or more points in four of the past five seasons. He scored 97 (34 goals, 63 assists) in 64 games in the 2019-20 season, which was shortened because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He is one of 26 players in NHL history to score at least 100 points in four or more seasons. Twenty-two of the 26 are in the Hockey Hall of Fame; three of the four that aren't are active NHL players (McDavid, Crosby, Alex Ovechkin) and the other is Jaromir Jagr, who is playing in the Czech Republic.
McDavid would become the 19th player in NHL history with five or more 100-point seasons if he reaches the mark this season. He is averaging 1.41 points per game in his NHL career, which equates to 116 points over an 82-game season.
"I feel good," McDavid said. "I worked hard this summer, worked on my game and just tried to think of different ways to create offense, obviously round out my game, the full 200-foot game, be better defensively and harder off face-offs."
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis): Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers, 79 points (13 first-place votes); Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche, 59 (four first-place votes); Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs, 22; Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers, 21; Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers, 19; Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning, 12; Mark Stone, Vegas Golden Knights, 8; Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers, 8; David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins, 6; Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes, 3; Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals, 3; Brayden Point, Tampa Bay Lightning, 3; Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning, 2; Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks, 2; Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild, 2; Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks, 1; Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers, 1; Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins, 1; Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs, 1; Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins, 1; Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets, 1