Trying to solve this season’s Hart Trophy puzzle

What is the Hart Trophy?

The simplest explanation is the MVP award in the NHL, described, as most MVP awards are, as going to the “player judged most valuable to his team.” Well, we know that’s not true. For at least the past 20 years in this league, the goaltender has been the most important single player to any winning team. But since 1998, only two goalies have won the award, both Canadiens — Jose Theodore in 2002 and Carey Price in 2015 (when he won just about everything with one of the best seasons in goaltending history).

Because there is a separate award for the best goaltender — the Vezina Trophy — most voters shy away from putting goalies at the top of their Hart ballots.

The award also disregards players on teams that are not in the playoff picture. The most recent player to win the Hart on a non-playoff team was Mario Lemieux in 1988, when his Penguins missed the playoffs by a point. The thinking here is that another award exists to recognize great players that happen to be on bad teams — the Ted Lindsay Award, given out by the NHLPA as the “most outstanding” player in the league. Yet, the Hart and Lindsay winners have been different just three times since 2006, and the same the past four years.

There is also the thought that a player can’t be that valuable if he’s on a bad team. Being surrounded by bad players has damned many a great Hart candidate.

Which brings us to what I think is the actual historical definition of the Hart — the award that goes to the best player in the league on a good team, unless a goalie is having an other-worldly season.

Easy, right?

Of course, the league general managers don’t seem like they want to change the actual wording of the award because it is already judged by such unwritten criteria that it is considered “tradition.” It’s unclear why the GM’s would have a say in an award voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA), but that’s a separate point.

The issue here is whom to vote for this year in what might be the most difficult vote in at least the past decade. I think the reigning Hart winner, Connor McDavid, is still the best player in the game, but his Oilers have had a drastically bad season (not sure what kind of moron would have picked them to win it all).

You could certainly argue that the best player in the game remains Sidney Crosby, but even on his own Penguins team, Evgeni Malkin is having the better statistical season. Since the start of this calendar year, Malkin has recorded at least one point in 26-of-34 games, leading the league with 55 points during that stretch while Pittsburgh ran up the standings and are now legitimate contenders to win a third straight Stanley Cup. But if we’re talking career years for great teams, how about Nikita Kucherov, leading the league with 95 points through 72 games for a Lightning team that has been the best in the league all season?

Then again, has the performance of any one player helped a team more than the goaltending of Connor Hellebuyck in Winnipeg? The Jets even-strength save percentage went from 25th in the league last season (.916) to ninth this season (.924), while Hellebuyck’s 2.34 goals-against average is behind only Pekka Rinne (2.26) among goalies who have started more than 50 games. This while the Jets have been the second- or third-best team in the Western Conference all season.

And still, with all of those machinations, I still think my top spot is going to Nathan MacKinnon. He has been a one-man show out in Colorado, 92 points in his first 66 games played, and gotten a bad team with a lot of off-ice distractions right into the playoff mix. Whether the Avalanche make it or not — they went into Friday’s action in the first wild-card spot with 88 points, three points clear of dropping out — I still think he is the Hart Trophy winner.

Whatever that really means.

Transparency doesn’t equal accountability

Quickly, I want to address something that got Twitter all bothered the other day (not a difficult thing to do). As a member of the PHWA, I voted against our organization making awards ballots public. I was part of only 17 percent that felt that way, and so this year — after a publishing quarantine until after the NHL awards are announced in June, when, you know, people really care about regular-season awards — the PHWA will release everyone’s ballot.

I feel strongly that there is zero upside in forcing votes to be made public. If any writer — a very loosely used term in this organization now — wanted to do it, the platforms are certainly there. Yet the biggest downside is adding fodder to growing perception that media members are biased. (In sports, this means very little compared to the big picture.) To take some flak from fans is no big deal, but when it effects relationships in and around the league, now it’s making the job more difficult for those of us remaining that cover the sport in an independent fashion (as in, not for a team or a rights holder).

This notion of accountability is foolish, too. If a voter makes a mockery of their privilege, it should be dealt with internally — not by publicly shaming the person. And if someone’s votes show a direct bias, that person’s voting rights (and status in the PHWA) should be dealt with internally. (Then again, when broadcasters who are paid by teams are allowed in the organization, how can there be no conflict of interest?)

I’m all for transparency, and I’m happy to defend and debate my votes (if I decide to vote at all). But forcing the issue just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Go, Eddie O!

Great news from Eddie Olczyk, the beloved broadcaster and former Ranger who announced on air Thursday that he is cancer free after a battle with colon cancer. We’re all effected by cancer in some way, and to see someone beat it — with the help of the support group around him — is inspiring.

Stay tuned . . .

. . . to the Blue Jackets. John Tortorella went from the hot seat to the throne, his team on the verge of missing the playoffs to now riding a 10-game winning streak to third place in Metropolitan Division. And Tortorella has done it his way, making Brandon Dubinsky a healthy scratch for two straight, and scratching Jack Johnson for Thursday’s 4-0 win over the Panthers.

Interesting to see how they will stack up in the playoffs — either as one of the league’s hottest teams, or one dealing with a lot of internal strife.

Parting shot

Sidney Crosby might not win a third Hart Trophy this year, but he might win Goal of the Year with this double-deflection.