The NHL has announce the names of the three finalists for the Hart Trophy. The winner will be announced at the 2012 NHL Awards Show in Las Vegas on June 20th. The finalists are goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, forward Evgeni Malkin and forward Steven Stamkos. The Hart Trophy is awarded to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.
Henrik Lundqvist also known as “King Henrik” is the New York Rangers starting goaltender. He has a 1.97 goals against average and .930 save percentage for this season. Lundqvist also won 39 out of 51 games this season including 8 shutouts. This is the first time a goaltender has been nominated for the Hart Trophy since 2006-07 and if he wins he will be the first goaltender to win since Jose Theodore won in 2001-02.
Evgeni Malkin has been the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar this season recording an impressive 109 points to win his 2nd Art Ross Trophy. He also managed to score 50 goals this season, second only to the 2012 NHL leading scorer Steven Stamkos. This is Malkin’s third time being nominated for the Hart Trophy.
Steven Stamkos led not only the Tampa Bay Lightning in scoring but he led the whole league winning his 2nd Rocket Richard Trophy. He became the 20th player in NHL history to score 60 points in a single season. He recorded two hat-tricks this season but he wasn’t just a goal scorer he also blocked 37 shots and had 42 takeaways. Stamkos is an all-around great player that is essential to the line-up of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
So there’s a look at the three Hart Trophy finalists. I believe that Evgeni Malkin is most likely to win the Hart Trophy this year. He stepped up for his team when they were without their captain Sidney Crosby. He had an impressive plus 18 rating and scored 9 game winning goals for his team. Malkin is an incredible play-maker that allows his teammates to benefit from his hard work. There’s my pick for the Hart Trophy Winner, what’s yours?
