The
Hart Memorial Trophy, originally known as the
Hart Trophy, the "oldest and most prestigious
individual award in hockey", is awarded annually to the
"player adjudged most valuable to his
team" in the
National Hockey
League. The Hart Memorial Trophy has been awarded 84 times to
51 different players since its beginnings in 1924. Each year,
members of the
Professional Hockey
Writers' Association vote to determine the player who was the
most valuable to his team during the
regular season.
History
Elmer Lach with the original trophy in
1945.
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 hockey club. The Hart Trophy was first awarded at the
conclusion of the
1923–24 NHL
season. The winner of the first Hart Trophy was
Frank Nighbor of the
Ottawa Senators.
The original "Hart
Trophy" was retired in Hockey Hall of Fame
in 1960, and the NHL began presenting a new trophy,
which was dubbed the "Hart Memorial Trophy" in its place.
With the exceptions of
Tommy Anderson
and
Al Rollins, every eligible player who
won the Hart Trophy has been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Wayne Gretzky won the award a record
nine times during his career, eight consecutively. He has been
named MVP more times than any other player in the history of the
other three North American Major Professional Leagues (
Major League Baseball,
National Basketball
Association, and
National
Football League).
Barry Bonds is
second, having won the MVP award seven times in Major League
Baseball. Gretzky and his
Edmonton
Oilers teammate
Mark Messier are
the only players to win the Hart Trophy with more than one team. In
1990,
Mark Messier took the Hart over
Ray Bourque by a margin of two votes, the
difference being a single first-place vote.
Players from the
Montreal
Canadiens have won the award sixteen times; players from
Boston Bruins are second with twelve
winners, and the
Detroit Red Wings
and
Edmonton Oilers have seen
players win the award nine times.
Joe
Thornton became the first Hart Trophy winner to switch clubs
during his winning campaign in
2005–06 NHL season, having played
for both the
Boston Bruins and
San Jose Sharks that year.
The voting is conducted at the end of the regular season by members
of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, and each individual
voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10-7-5-3-1 points
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, who had 86 first-place votes
to Iginla's 82, claimed it.
In 2008, NHL.com's official online shop came under criticism after
they placed a T-shirt advertising
Alexander Ovechkin as the Hart winner on
sale a week before the winner was revealed. A spokesperson for the
NHL said "in an effort to offer our fans the merchandise they want
in a timely manner following an event such as the NHL Awards, our
licensees prepare product for all possible outcomes. In this
situation, the link for one of the possible products became live
early through an error by our e-commerce provider." Ovechkin was
later revealed to be the winner.
Winners
References
- General
- Specific
See also
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
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