Sergei Bobrovsky’s Case for the Hart Trophy
The Columbus Blue Jackets net-minder has been magnificent all year. Yet, Sergei Bobrovsky is isn’t in the discussion for the Hart Trophy. Wake up hockey media, you’re missing the real MVP.
It’s rare for a player to win two major trophies in the same year. For some reason voters like to spread around the love. Just two years ago though Carey Price won both the Hart and the Vezina trophies in the same year. This year, that should happen with Sergei Bobrovsky.
Undoubtedly, Sergei has been the best goalie this season. Bob leads all major goalie categories including wins (39), goals against average (2.04) and save percentage (.931).
He has led a team that finished 27th in the NHL to competing for the Presidents’ Trophy. So the Vezina is locked unless something crazy happens.
Case for the Hart
The NHL defines the Hart Trophy on their own website as:
"The Hart Memorial Trophy is an annual award given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team."
“Most valuable to his team”. Just so we’re all on the same page through this discussion. It’s not the best player in the league that year but the most valuable to his team. Although Sergei Bobrovsky checks off both boxes. No team would miss a single player this year more than the Columbus Blue Jackets would miss Bobrovsky.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Connor McDavid can claim a steak to this title, as he has carried the Oilers and leads the league in points. He isn’t finish as strong as he would like though and is likely to lose out on the points title to Sidney Crosby. McDavid also has another 70-plus point player on his line in Leon Draisaitl. Having another elite scorer on your line takes away your claim to your team needing you more than Bob.
I think this takes Sidney Crosby out of the conversation considering Evgeni Malkin has 73 points and Phil Kessel has 63. The Penguins would certainly miss Crosby but isn’t as valuable to his team as Bob.
Bob 16-17 vs. Price 14-15
Only three goaltenders have won the Hart trophy in the last 50 years. So there is a huge uphill battle already for Bobrovsky. Looking at his numbers though, he is right on what Carey Price did in 2014-2015.
With 11 games remaining, Bob is only behind Price’s numbers by 5 wins, .002 points in save percentage and .08 in goals against average. All well within striking distance.
Bob has been on a tear coming down the stretch as well. If he finishes out the season like he is playing now he will catch Price’s numbers.
Price also had arguably a better defensive core in front of him the entire year. P.K. Subban, Tom Gilbert, and Andrei Markov all had over 140 blocked shots. No Columbus Blue Jacket will break 140 blocked shots this year. The young D-core for Columbus has taken time to develop and still relies heavily on Bob to bail them out.
Finishing strong will go a long way to creating some buzz and getting him further along in the conversation. So wake up hockey media, Sergei Bobrovsky deserves significant consideration for the Hart trophy.