New Jersey Devils’ Taylor Hall Wins Hart Trophy at NHL Awards

The NHL had its post season award show in Las Vegas on June 20th, with New Jersey Devils left winger Taylor Hall taking home the Hart Trophy, the award for Most Valuable Player as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Hall was the sixth highest scorer in the NHL last season with 93 points (39 goals and 54 assists) and had a +/- of 14 in his best season to date. Hall was the top overall pick by Edmonton in the 2010 draft, and played six seasons for the Oilers before being traded to New Jersey in 2016. Hall led the Devils to their first playoff appearance in six years; they lost to Tampa Bay in five games in the first round.

As we mentioned, Hall was the sixth leading scorer in the league. The Art Ross Trophy winner as top scorer for the second year in a row was Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, who had 108 points on 41 goals and 67 assists. McDavid won the Hart last year, as well as the Ted Lindsay Award, which is the MVP as selected by the members of the NHL Players Association. McDavid was again selected by the players as the Lindsay Award winner.

Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman was the Norris Trophy winner as the top defenseman. Hedman scored 17 goals and had 46 assists for the Lightning, and a +/- of 32. Nashville Goalie Pekke Rinne won the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie, going 42-13-4 with a .927 save percentage and eight shutouts for the Predators.

New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal was the Calder Trophy winner as the top rookie. The 21 year old British Columbia native scored 22 goals and had 63 assists. Speaking of the Islanders, the team signed Washington Capitals Stanley Cup winning coach Barry Trotz on June 21st. Trotz, who had just completed the final year of his contract, had earned a two year extension for winning the Stanley Cup, but when he and the team could not agree to an extension beyond that, resigned on June 18th. The Islanders have missed the playoffs the last two years, and showed coach Doug Weight and general manager Garth Snow the door earlier in June. They’ll need to upgrade their defense, including their goalies; the Islanders allowed 3.57 goals per game, the most in the NHL.