Draisaitl, McDavid each worthy of winning Hart Trophy, Oilers GM says

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Ken Holland knows who would get his vote for the Hart Trophy: Edmonton Oilers centers Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.

"Co-winners," the Oilers general manager said with a laugh at the NHL GM meetings here this week.
If only it were that easy.
Draisaitl leads the NHL with 108 points (43 goals, 65 assists). McDavid is second with 95 points (32 goals, 63 assists).
One player wins the Hart. Unlike the Ted Lindsay Award, which goes to the most outstanding player as voted by the NHL Players' Association, the Hart goes to the most valuable player to his team as voted by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association.
Can a player be the most valuable to his team when the other leading scorer in the League is on his team too? Does it matter? Should it matter?
It's a great debate to have for the Oilers, who are second in the Pacific Division and have a chance to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second time in 14 seasons. They play the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSCH, SNW, NHL.TV).
"They're both great players," Holland said. "They're both having great seasons. On an every-night basis, they're obviously the two guys that are going to impact our team the most, because they have a large factor in us providing offense.
"But at the end of the day, you're a team, and I think what (coach) Dave Tippett has done is, everybody's got their little piece of the pie, their contribution to us being successful, and everybody feels good about themselves."

What has been most valuable to the Oilers this season is that Draisaitl and McDavid each has made an impact on his own.
They played mostly together last season, when McDavid had 116 points (41 goals, 75 assists), second in the NHL, and Draisaitl had 105 points (50 goals, 55 assists), fourth in the League. McDavid, who won the Hart in 2016-17, was a finalist for the trophy even though the Oilers missed the playoffs. Draisaitl didn't receive a single first-, second-, third-, fourth- or fifth-place vote.
They started out together this season. But then the Oilers called up forward Kailer Yamamoto from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League on Dec. 29, and Tippett put Draisaitl between Yamamoto and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
"I know Dave Tippett's talked over the course of the season on a regular basis with Connor and with Leon about his vision for the team," Holland said. "They obviously have to buy in. You're talking about two players that played together last year, and we're trying to have them have similar success not playing together."
Since Dec. 31, when Yamamoto played his first NHL game this season, the Oilers have gone 16-6-4.
Draisaitl has 47 points (21 goals, 26 assists) in those 26 games, including 29 points (11 goals, 18 assists) at even strength. McDavid has 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists) in 20 games, including 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) at even strength.

In the six games McDavid missed because of a quad injury, Draisaitl had 12 points (four goals, eight assists).
"It's made us a much better team," Holland said. "Obviously by us having two lines, it makes it a little more difficult to match, I think, for the opposing team, and obviously it's hard to go over 80 games counting on one line to produce the offense on an every-night basis and win consistently."
At the end of the regular season, Hart voters will have to interpret the criteria for the trophy and weigh the value of Draisaitl and McDavid to the Oilers individually, not collectively.
At this stage, Draisaitl has 13 more points than anyone else in the NHL, but again, the next closest scorer is McDavid, his teammate. No one else on the Oilers roster has more than 58 points. Edmonton is 11th in the NHL in point percentage (.597).
Compare each of them to, say, Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon. He has 86 points (33 goals, 53 assists). That's well behind Draisaitl and McDavid. But it's fifth in the NHL, and no one else on the Avalanche roster has more than 47 points. Colorado is second in the Central Division and third in the NHL in point percentage (.669).
Does that make MacKinnon the most valuable player to his team? Is there a better candidate? Or is this a special circumstance?

The last time teammates were finalists for the Hart was 2000-01, when Colorado Avalanche center Joe Sakic won it, followed by Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jagr led the NHL with 121 points (52 goals, 69 assists). Lemieux had 76 points (35 goals, 41 assists) in 43 games after coming out of retirement, helping the Penguins make the playoffs.
Draisaitl is on pace for 133 points, which would be the most in the NHL since 1995-96, when Lemieux led the League with 161 points (69 goals, 92 assists), Jagr was second with 149 points (62 goals, 87 assists) and the Penguins won the Northeast Division. Lemieux won the Hart. Jagr was fourth in the voting.
"I'm glad I don't have to vote," Holland said.
He's glad he has two players for whom to vote, though.