Dallas Stars’ Jamie Benn Earned Hart Trophy This Season
By Josh Clark
The Hart Trophy will be awarded to either Jamie Benn, Patrick Kane, or Sidney Crosby on June 22nd. After a stellar 2015-2016 season, here is why Benn deserves it.
The Dallas Stars made some fantastic strides this season in the progression of their franchise. They went from a 92-point team to a 109-point team in the span of a season, finished first place in both the Central Division and Western Conference, and advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
What an improvement. They were led for a third straight season by determined captain Jamie Benn. The 26-year old, fresh off of an Art Ross Trophy season last year, hit the ground running this season and put up another career year.
Playing another full 82-game slate for the second straight year, Benn became the second Dallas Stars player in history to score 40+ goals when he hit 41. He added 48 assists for 89 total points, along with a +7 on-ice rating. He skated a career-high 20:01 average ice time on two repaired hips.
This performance was enough to not only earn Benn a nomination for the Ted Lindsay award, but also the highly-sought Hart Trophy. He has plenty of competition, going up against Chicago Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane and Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby.
The Hart Trophy is awarded annually to the “player judged most valuable to his team.” When surveying these three players, it is clear that this definition does not help a lot, at least on the surface.
Each player has their own specific partner in crime, with Benn alongside Tyler Seguin, Crosby with Evgeni Malkin, and Kane with Jonathan Toews.
But once you dig deeper and look at every single characteristic in play, it is clear that Benn has proven plenty to win the trophy.
With 89 points, Benn set a new career high this past season. Kane did the same and clinched the Art Ross Trophy with 106, but value is determined by more than just points.
Benn has simply been defined multiple times in the past year as the “ultimate package.” He’s proven this past season and the two before that he is one of, if not the best captains in the NHL. He defends his team, knows how to score, plays physical defense, runs the power play and penalty kill, and will do whatever it takes to defend his team and come out on top.
Along with winning the Art Ross Trophy last season, Benn was also nominated for the Ted Lindsay award. This trophy is given to the most outstanding player in the NHL as voted by the NHLPA. Though Carey Price would eventually win both the Ted Lindsay and Hart Trophy, it didn’t stop Benn from looking to continue improving his game and leadership.
“He was nominated as one of the top three players by his own peers and he’s taken that upon himself to say, ‘You know what, that’s an honor, and I want to continue to be that guy,'” Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill told Dan Rosen at the beginning of the season . “It’s his team. He realizes it’s his team now and he’s going to put it on his back any way he can.”
Benn was chosen as the preseason favorite to win the Hart Trophy this past season, and now he is as close as anyone can get. Last year, he finished twelfth in Hart Trophy voting, and was the only player out of the 22 who received votes that did not qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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Of course this is a biased opinion, just as all of the Blackhawks’ fans saying Kane deserves it and all of the Penguins’ fans saying Crosby deserves it. Though Crosby is playing for the Stanley Cup right now, postseason performances will not calculate into any of the final scoring and voting.
At the end of the day, all three of these players has a legitimate claim to the award. But it seems that Jamie Benn has simply had this coming ever since he picked up the “C” for the Dallas Stars in 2013. Three winning seasons, two playoff appearances, one Central Division title, one Art Ross Trophy, and helping put hockey back on the map in Texas. What a resume for three short years.
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It will be interesting to see who the award ends up going to on June 22nd at the NHL Awards. All three candidates had great seasons that got them to the nomination, but Jamie Benn might have outdone them all. He’s an always reliable, rarely inconsistent player who is a positive influence both on and off the ice. Give it to him.