Hall of Devils wins Hart Trophy as NHL MVP

Taylor Hall of the New Jersey Devils won the Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player at the 2018 NHL Awards Presented by Hulu at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old forward ranked sixth in the NHL with a career high 93 points (39 goals, 54 assists) in 76 games to help the Devils to a 27-point improvement in the standings and their first Stanley Cup Playoff appearance since 2012.

"It's not something that I really ever had a goal in mind to win | Complete NHL Awards coverage]*

Hall, selected No. 1 by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2010 NHL Draft, was the third straight Hart Trophy winner to be a No. 1 pick. Oilers center Connor McDavid (No. 1, 2015) won it last season and Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane (No. 1 in 2007) won it in 2016.
Hall was acquired by the Devils in a trade with the Oilers for defenseman Adam Larsson on June 29, 2016.
"I just kept trying to play and I thought if we made the [playoffs], maybe I'd get nominated, but it wasn't really a big focal point to me," he said.

The other finalists were Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar and Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon. Kopitar, 30, had 92 points (35 goals, 57 assists) in 82 games and led NHL forwards in time on ice (1,810:58) and time on ice per game (22:05). MacKinnon, 22, finished fifth in the League with 97 points (39 goals, 58 assists) in 74 games, tied for first with 12 game-winning goals, and helped Colorado improve by 47 points to clinch a berth in the playoffs.
Here is the voting by the Professional Hockey Writers Association:
Pts. (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th)
1. Taylor Hall, NJD 1,264 (72-62-19-4-3)
2. Nathan MacKinnon, COL 1,194 (60-66-19-11-4)
3. Anze Kopitar, LAK 551 (11-11-41-49-12)
4. Claude Giroux, PHI 546 (10-10-44-45-21)
5. Connor McDavid, EDM 270 (6-5-19-16-32)
6. Nikita Kucherov, TBL 166 (0-6-8-15-39)
7. Evgeni Malkin, PIT 97 (3-2-6-5-8)
8. Blake Wheeler, WPG 69 (1-2-1-6-22)
9. Alex Ovechkin, WSH 37 (0-0-2-5-12)
10. William Karlsson, VGK 32 (1-0-3-2-1)