Quoting: NHLfan10506
HART:
1. MacKinnon
2. Pastrrnak
3. Draisaitl
(dark horses: Huberdeau, Eichel)
Quoting: CD282
Since Hart candidates pretty much always come from playoff teams unless they're running away with the scoring race, that pretty much eliminates Huberdeau and Eichel at this point. If you're going to include non-playoff players, Panarin is clearly a top-3 candidate.
Also, it's pretty amazing to me that you don't even list McDavid in your top-5.
Further to this, since January 1st (roughly the halfway point of the season):
1. Draisaitl: 1.78
2. McDavid: 1.52
3. Kucherov: 1.43
4. Zibanejad: 1.41
5. Stamkos: 1.36
6. Panarin: 1.36
7. Nugent-Hopkins: 1.33
8. Crosby: 1.30
9. Pastrnak: 1.25
10. JT Miller: 1.25
11. MacKinnon: 1.25
.
.
.
50. Eichel: 0.89
52. Huberdeau: 0.86
Of course this is a whole season award, but you're ignoring the fact that some of these guys are fading down the stretch - and badly.
Here's a good way to gauge how important a single player's contribution is to his team: total points divided by team goals. Once again, we have one runaway winner:
Draisaitl: 50.23%
McDavid: 43.44% *missed 6 games, he's been in on 47.29% of team goals in games that he played. Oilers were 3-2-1 (.583) in games that he missed**, boosting Draisaitl's Hart story.
Pastrnak: 41.78%
Panarin: 40.97%
Eichel: 40.10%
MacKinnon: 40.09%
Kane: 39.81%
Kucherov: 34.43%
Huberdeau: 34.06%
Zibanejad: 31.58% *missed 13 games, he's been in on 39.34% of team goals in games that he played. Rangers were 8-4-1 (.651) in games that he missed, boosting Panarin's Hart story.
** Two of those games were against the top 2 teams in the NHL, Tampa Bay (away reg loss) and Boston (home OTL).