Hart Memorial Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award – Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
McDavid couldn’t have done more to earn recognition as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player.
He just had his 15th highest scoring season in league history, with only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemeiux and Steve Yzerman ever surpassing his 153 points. He also led the NHL in goals, had the league’s best power play and even played more penalties than ever before in his career.
No player came closer than 20 points to McDavid’s total and he recorded more ice time than any other forward. He was arguably the NHL’s strongest offensive force — and while some of the NHL’s superstars can claim to have made a larger defensive contribution, the gap in offensive production was too large for those cases to gain momentum.
The Oilers superstar’s claim to the award will be extremely difficult to back down, and this Hart Trophy is the third of his career — making him one of only nine players with at least three. He has a good shot at adding to that collection considering he’s only 26, and another win would be in an elite four-win group of four that included only Gretzky (9), Gordie Howe ( 6) and Eddie Shore (4) ).
With McDavid’s win, the Edmonton Oilers now have 13 Hart Trophy wins in franchise history. Only the Montreal Canadiens have more (17).
Like McDavid, Karlsson has had a historic season in terms of raw offensive performance.
Karlsson’s 101 points was the 15th most ever by an NHL defenseman, and no blueliner has managed a triple-digit season since Brian Leetch in the 1991-91 season.
The 32-year-old’s successful season came as a bit of a surprise as he hadn’t surpassed the 45-point mark since arriving in San Jose ahead of the 2018-19 season. Staying healthy had been a problem for the Swede in recent years, but he played all 82 games in the 2022/23 season – and the departure of Brett Burns also opened the door for him to better control the puck and offense to advance the Sharks.
While Karlsson’s performance is unassailable, there are some who believe his defensive contributions are insufficient to make him a worthy Norris winner. Historically, this award has often gone to the most offensively explosive defenders, likely due to the difficulty of quantifying and evaluating defensive play compared to simply examining offensive stats.
This is Karlsson’s third Norris Trophy win, having taken home the award in 2014-15 and 2012-13. He is the ninth defender to have received this honor at least three times.
Statistically, Ullmark was in a class of its own in 2022/23.
Among goaltenders with at least 40 games played, he led the NHL by a wide margin in goal-against average (1.89) and save average (0.938). The next best numbers were 2.33 and 0.924, respectively.
He also outperformed NHL goalies on more advanced metrics like GSAA (+48.5) and GA%-(65). For old-school voters interested in goalkeeping records, his 40-6-1 might have slipped off the radar.
There are only two points that could be made against Ullmark’s masterful campaign. The first is his relatively light 49-game workload, and the second is that he played for a historically great Bruins team, which made his life easier.
While both ideas have some merit, the difference between Ullmark and his colleagues is hard to overlook.
The veteran’s victory is surprising in that he had never started more than half of a season’s games at a career save rate of .913 early in the season. He is the sixth Vezina first winner in a row.
Bergeron had finished in the top three in Selke Trophy selections for 11 consecutive seasons from 2022-2023 and his outstanding season has earned him a sixth Selke.
Even at the age of 37, Bergeron remained a serious defensive player. In the 2022/23 season, his goals allowed on ice at a consistent rate per 60 minutes was just 1.7 – the third lowest tally of his glorious career. He also posted an expected +/- of +22.5 based on the quality of shots each team made while he was on the ice, which was his second-best mark since 2014-15.
In other words, Bergeron did everything he normally does to win this award. He dominated the face-off circle (61.1%), which contributed to staggering possession rates (+11.6% vs. Corsi), and his team locked opponents out when he was on the ice. As a result, the Bruins conceded 36 fewer goals than any other NHL team.
Despite his advanced age, Bergeron also played more penalty minutes (138.5) than in any season since 2015/16.
Beniers led the NHL rookie scoring race with 57 points, and no freshman surpassed his target score of 24.
The first draft pick in Kraken history also led all rookies by a +14 rating, and his strong Expected +/- (+10.1) shows he wasn’t an all-offensive player whose team was in the Defensive suffered when he was on the ice.
The center was a key factor in Seattle’s surprise 100-point season, establishing himself as a center in the top six by age 20 and ranking fourth on the team on points.
Beniers seemed to be the clear leader in this race for most of the season. The most logical alternative was Owen Power, who looked strong and had a tremendous workload on the Buffalo Sabers blue line (23:48).
The young center is in good company as recent Calder winners have become some of the NHL’s biggest stars. The final 10 recipients of this trophy include superstars like Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews, Kirill Kaprizov, Cale Makar, Artemi Panarin and Elias Petterson.
Jack Adams Award—Jim Montgomery, Boston Bruins
In his first season behind the bench, Montgomery led the Bruins to an NHL-record 65 wins and 135 points. Boston also led the league in goals for, goals against and goal difference.
Montgomery is the second Bruins head coach to win this honor in the past three seasons, after Bruce Cassidy in 2020.
This is the second time Anze Kopitar has won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s best gentleman on ice, having taken home the award in 2015-16.
The 35-year-old also had his most prolific season in six years, scoring 28 goals and 74 points in 82 games and ending the season with just four penalty minutes.
Personally, Kris Letang may have had one of the most difficult NHL seasons in recent history. The 36-year-old suffered the second stroke of his career in December. He was back on the ice two weeks later, but was forced to retire from the Penguins in January following the sudden death of his father.
Despite the hardships, Letang managed to qualify for 64 regular-season games, scoring 41 points while averaging 24:51 ice time per game.