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 99 times to 61 different players since its beginnings in 1923–24.

History

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 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.

Wayne Gretzky won the award a record nine times during his career, eight consecutively. Gretzky and his Edmonton Oilers teammate Mark Messier are the only players to win the Hart Trophy with more than one team. Eddie Shore and Herb Gardiner are the oldest winners of the award, each winning it at the age of 35. There have been two unanimous MVP wins, both with the Edmonton Oilers: Wayne Gretzky for the 1981–82 NHL season and Connor McDavid during the 2020–21 NHL season.

Players from the Montreal Canadiens have won the award seventeen times; players from the Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers are second with thirteen 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 won four times with Boston. By contrast, it is rare for a goaltender to win the award; only eight different goaltenders have won the Hart Trophy, nine times, with Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek being the only two-time winner at that position.

The first American to win the award is two-fold depending on the definition. Billy Burch was the first player born in America (specifically Yonkers, New York) to win the award, doing so in 1925, but he identified himself as a Canadian due to living there from a young age. The first born-and-raised-American to win the award was Patrick Kane in 2016.

Voting

The voting is conducted at the end of the regular season by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, and each voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10-7-5-3-1 point(s) system. 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 as he had 86 first-place votes to Iginla's 82.

Winners

See also

• Ted Lindsay Award

• List of NHL statistical leaders

Notes

References

Further reading