Simple poll question, who are YOU picking for MVP of the 2023-24 hockey season? Is it McDavid, or Any Other Player?

If it's anyone other than Connor McDavid, feel free to leave YOUR pick below. If you dare...

As of March 19th, 2024, this poll is leaning towards McDavid. At a vote of:

7 votes for McDavid.

2 votes for Any Other Player.

Do people still think McDavid can pull this out, or are they leaning towards someone else now?

Feel it’s gotta go to either Quinn Hughes or Nathan MacKinnon, they’ve been dominating for the whole season, McDavid only began doing McDavid things later on.

I think Matthews deserves it... Especially if he hit 65 or 70

MacKinnon almost broke a Gretzky record...end of story (and yes I'm biased lol)

Matthews has a good chance of hitting 70 without cheating for offence and being a defensive beast... He's the true MVP

This is easily one of the most difficult years to select an MVP or James Norris; many many deserving players. Josi has come on strong and led his team to playoffs to enter both races.

Matthews, MacKinnon, McDavid, Kucherov, and Panarin
Hughes, Makar, and Josi

In many voters minds MacKinnon was robbed of the MVP in 2017–18 and I do think that will factor in. The home points streak and his extended games points streak and his consistency all year are factors in his favor; having other elite players like Rantanen, Makar, and Nichushkin (our record without Val is a major concern) on the team probably hurts him. But MacKinnon has taken on the mantle of leadership and been dominating this year from wire-to-wire and his play has elevated those around him even more than any other year I've seen from the Avs.

If Oilers win their division and McDavid wins the scoring race then I think it becomes razor thin margins. Putting his team on his back and elevating his and their play in all zones to save a trainwreck of a season with very likely hitting 100+ assists and challenging the Canucks for the division is insane. This season has been one of his most impressive despite not scoring as much as he did in previous years. If he wins the Art Ross but the team doesn't win the division then there could be a little bit of "he's got his flowers already, time for someone else" type of voting mentality.

Yes Matthews flirting with 70 goals is impressive but this year, while losing Marner for a good chunk has helped his cause, but Nylander having a career year and the team not being as dominant hurts his case. His two-way play helps him. I think that many writers will think to themselves that "he won the Rocket Richard" that's good enough.

Kucherov has been dominant all season for a Lightning team that would easily miss the playoffs without him. With Vasy out, their D a patchwork of AHL players, and down years from Stamkos and Point; Kuch has been elite and consistent all season long. The drop off in production in after him is stark: 40+ points to the next player on the Lightning.

You could almost say the same thing for Panarin in NYR too.

All of these guys are the driving force for their teams and they would not have the level of success without them. The award goes “to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.” and all of them and including guys like Artemi Panarin, Quinn Hughes, JT Miller, Roman Josi, Connor Hellebuyck, Cale Makar, David Pastrnak, Sebastian Aho, Sasha Barkov, and Sam Reinhart fit that description so well.

Whoever wins, we'll be debating this one for a few years because there are legit cases for so many guys having elite seasons.

Assuming the D don't get in the MVP finalists...

Art Ross - Connor McDavid
Rocket Richard - Auston Matthews
Ted Lindsay - Nikita Kucherov
Hart - Nathan MacKinnon

Aren't these the same thing though?The Leafs needed to rely on Matthews to make the playoffs... (without him, they lose 10+ games right off the bat... Putting them out of the playoffs by a wide margin) the same as saying the Lightning won't make the playoffs for sure without Kuch?

Obviously, it doesn't matter as you have 29 winning the hart, but it's weird the difference for Matthews and Kuch

Not exactly because Nylander is having a career year and the Leafs' playoff spot has never really been in jeopardy.

But it's all just splitting hairs; especially this season.

Oh... It's because Nylander's doing well... I get that

And don't forget, the Leafs were in WC1 at one point...

I don't think there's a bad option out of: Matthews, MacKinnon, Kuch and McDavid

I'm just pointing out the main items that are brought up to "split hairs" between these guys. It's probably the closest and with the most players of being worthy that I can recall in several decades.

The drumbeat on Kucherov is that he is 45 points farther ahead than anyone on his team. The opposite of that is McDavid-Draisatl; MacKinnon-Rantanen; Matthews-Nylander. What "helps" one guys case "hurts" the others. McDavid dragging his team from the precipice of disaster is impressive; Kucherov holding the Lightning in the mix is also; Matthews might be on that scale but not to the level of those guys. But then we can't also ignore that MacKinnon's elite consistency all year never allowed his team to slide that far down.

It is the most subjective thing at this point and none of these teams would be as good this year without these players.

I was curious about how they played against elite competition:

Vs Top 8 teams (not including their own of course):

Kucherov 15-21 36 pts in 20 games: 1.800 ppg
Panarin 11-14 25 pts in 19 games: 1.316 ppg
McDavid 3-18 21 pts in 17 games: 1.235 ppg
MacKinnon 8-12 20 pts in 17 games: 1.176 ppg
Matthews 12-10 22 pts in 21 games: 1.048 ppg
Pastrnak 7-8 15 pts in 17 games: 0.882 ppg

Vs Top 16 teams (not including their own of course):

Kucherov 29-44 73 pts in 39 games: 1.872 ppg
McDavid 12-53 65 pts in 36 games: 1.806 ppg
MacKinnon 20-37 57 pts in 36 games: 1.583 ppg
Pastrnak 18-32 50 pts in 40 games: 1.250 ppg
Matthews 26-22 48 pts in 40 games: 1.200 ppg
Panarin 20-27 47 pts in 40 games: 1.175 ppg

vs the "bottom 15" teams:

MacKinnon 27-43 70 pts in 39 games: 1.795 ppg
Panarin 25-38 63 pts in 36 games: 1.750 ppg
McDavid 17-44 61 pts in 36 games: 1.694 ppg
Kucherov 13-44 57 pts in 35 games: 1.629 ppg
Matthews 37-14 51 pts in 34 games: 1.500 ppg
Pastrnak 28-26 54 pts in 36 games: 1.500 ppg

I was really surprised at these results. This shows that Kucherov has been uniquely dominant against top level teams; McDavid is consistent across all levels but slight dip against the high end; and while all of them are still elite: Matthews, MacKinnon, Panarin and Pastrnak feast on the weak (as expected). Matthews goal scoring rate vs "good teams" vs "bad teams" is pretty stark (about half the rate).

Did the same for the 3 Norris Trophy candidates. Not that Points is the end-all-be-all for the award; but since all of them are offensive defenseman wanted to see what it looks like:

Vs Top 8 teams (not including their own of course):

Makar 2-15 17 pts in 16 games: 1.063 ppg
Hughes 2-16 18 pts in 19 games: 0.947 ppg
Josi 3-16 19 pts in 24 games: 0.792 ppg

Vs Top 16 teams (not including their own of course):

Makar 9-26 35 pts in 34 games: 1.029 ppg
Hughes 7-31 38 pts in 38 games: 1.000 ppg
Josi 7-27 34 pts in 42 games: 0.810 ppg

vs the "bottom 15" teams:

Makar 10-36 46 pts in 36 games: 1.278 ppg
Josi 12-30 42 pts in 33 games: 1.273 ppg
Hughes 9-39 48 pts in 38 games: 1.263 ppg

To be fair to Matthews here... Is that Washington's most likely in the top 16 when they catch up in games... and Matthews does well vs Washington (3-3-5-8)

I feel like GPG should also be added... as Matthews' 2 biggest arguments aren't on display


In total, though, very surprising results

GPG is in there just take the first # and divide by games.

Washington is in the top 16 #s for Toronto since it would take the 17th ranked team into consideration (pulling Toronto out)

Same as PPG...

I saw top 15 teams... That's my bad

Looking back at Toronto's schedule, it shocks me how many top 16 teams they've had to face on a b2b... Bruins, Canes x2, Rangers, Nucks, Golden Knights, Caps, Wings, Kraken, Penguins, Ducks and will feature Devils and Lightning... Obviously the Ducks are nothing to write home about... But only 2 of these teams are currently eliminated form playoff contention (Kraken, whom were on a 7 game heater and the Ducks)...

^That was more off topic than on....

I think another thing about Matthews is that 85-86/99 points are primary points (roughly 85-86%) whereas Mackinnon, McDavid and Kucherov are top 5 in secondary assists...

McDavid, MacKinnon, and Kucherov do all have more primary points than Matthews as well though

Where can I see that? I've been searching it up but can't seem to find it

The only close one is IcyData but they are a little outdated

Thinking about it more, the other factor that hurts McDavid is that start to the season (15% of the schedule). Going from pre-season Cup favorite to playing so poorly (as the Captain, best player, and leader it matters) that the coach gets fired has got to be a hole that McDavid might not be able to climb out of. Depends upon how voters set aside recency bias or not; but I think it will weigh in when the season is over.

Kucherov and MacKinnon's consistently elite play all season probably wins out. Choosing between them probably comes down to "it's his turn" for MacKinnon.

Evolving Hockey has it. I don’t believe you can sort by primary points but if you just put in those 4 players it has their goals, primary assists, and secondary assists. https://evolving-hockey.com/stats/skater_standard/

Matthews: 63 G, 22 A1, 85 primary points
McDavid: 29 G, 61 A1, 90 primary points
MacKinnon: 48 G, 44 A1, 92 primary points
Kucherov: 43 G, 54 A1, 97 primary points

Thank you...

Primary points percentage:
Matthews: 85.9%
McDavid: 71%
Mackinnon: 70.7%
Kucherov: 72.9%

matthews because i am biased. i will not be arguing my opinion earnestly.

So McDavid gets dinged for being injured and then playing through that injury? That's dumb... if anything, it highlights his importance to his team even more.

Bouchard doesn't rank top-3?

Honestly I don't think I'd have Makar in the top-3. I know that sounds like heresy because he's so good offensively, but his defensive game has been lacking this season and without MacKinnon he's well underwater at 5v5. That's not Norris caliber in my books.

I get this argument, but when the 2nd and 3rd most valuable players on your team are a defenseman and a goalie, there's always going to be a big drop from the forward's point total. Point (43 goals) and Stamkos (36 goals) aren't exactly chopped liver either, despite their less impressive assist rates. Point is 7th in the league for goals and Stamkos 18th.

Not to take away from what Kucherov has done this season - he's likely to win the Art Ross - but just pointing out that points differential isn't a slam dunk argument for MVP.