Hart Trophy: Jamie Benn is Dallas’ MVP, but not the NHL’s
Over the last week or so the NHL has been announcing candidates for various awards that will be handed out at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas at the end of June. The event is a great effort by the league to bring together NHL elite; however, the elite players from the Dallas Stars have failed to be nominated for awards they’re more than qualified for.
The Hart Trophy is given to the league’s MVP and the candidates for it were announced this week. Jamie Benn was not one of them. This comes after standout defenseman John Klingberg was snubbed for the Rookie of the Year trophy just last week.
Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin, Montreal’s Carey Price, and New York Islanders’ John Tavares are the hopefuls for this year’s MVP status. All three displayed immense skill for their respective teams, but were their performances superior to Benn’s?
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Puck Prose
Jamie Benn had arguably his best season in his six-year NHL career, playing all eighty-two games for only the second time in that span, with the first being his rookie campaign back in 2009-2010. He also surpassed his previous career-best in points which was 79 in 2013-2014 by registering 87 points despite having a rather serious hip injury most of the year for which he has surgery last week. His average of 1.06 points per game as well as his overall solid performance earned him sole possession of the Art Ross Trophy, making him the first Stars player in history to achieve that honor.
All of that and he didn’t earn his way onto the ballot for league MVP? Unbelievable, I know.
Below is how Benn ranked in comparison to Ovechkin and Tavares in the regular season because it is nearly impossible to compare statistics between forwards and goalies.
For kicks Price finished the regular season with a (44-16-6) record, a .933 save percentage and a goals against average of 1.96, which will most likely earn him the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender over Minnesota’s Devan Dubnyk and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. In short, he more than deserves the nomination.
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Benn’s Art Ross win proves that he was the most successful offensive player in the NHL all-around, while Ovechkin’s 53 goals earned him sole possession of the Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals in the NHL. Both of those titles hold weight in the decision making process of league MVP. Essentially the question isn’t whether Price or Ovechkin deserved to be candidates, but why Tavares was chosen over Benn.
The title of ‘Most Valuable Player’ acknowledges the player in the league that best helped his team all season long and Benn did just that. The only factor that could have given Tavares the leg-up on Benn is that his Islanders qualified for the post-season, while Dallas was eliminated with three games to go. In my opinion, however, that should not be a reason to exclude him from contention. While the NHL is a results-oriented league, it can’t be ignored that Benn’s performance for Dallas was one of the only reasons they remained in the race for the post-season as long as they did.
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The Dallas captain finished the season with one more point than Tavares to beat him in the race for the Art Ross on the last day of the regular season by netting his second career hat trick and assisting on Cody Eakin’s goal with eight seconds remaining in regulation. Tavares scored a goal and had an assist in his last regular season game as well, but that left him one short for the Art Ross.
There is no doubt that Ovechkin, Tavares, and Price are fantastic talents and great hockey players, but to ignore the fact that Benn scored the most points out of everyone in the league and led the Dallas Stars night in and night out all year is disappointing to say the least.
Not being nominated won’t change the way Benn plays, nor will it bother the rather humble captain. One thing is for sure: Jamie Benn will continue to be Dallas’ MVP whether or not the league recognizes him as theirs.