Brad Marchand should be in the Hart Memorial Trophy conversation

The Boston Bruins’ Brad Marchand is playing his best hockey for one of the best teams in the NHL. It’s time we add his name to the Hart Memorial Trophy conversation.

As Hollywood’s award season comes to a close, it’s about time we start discussing the NHL awards. You probably spent four-plus hours watching the Oscars last Sunday, but you’ll definitely spend more time than that in the coming weeks discussing why your favorite player deserves to win the Hart Memorial Trophy.

While there are a few common names being tossed around in every discussion about the NHL’s coveted most valuable player award, the one name that needs to be added to these is Brad Marchand.

Unless you are a Bruins fan, Brad Marchand is not likely to come up when you are discussing potential Hart winners with your friends. In fact, if his name is brought up, you’ll probably spend some time talking about how much you dislike him. Then you will collectively come to the unavoidable conclusion that despite each of your personal grudges toward Marchand, you’d all love to have him on your respective teams.

This is your standard Brad Marchand conversation, though it has been unwarranted for some time now as Marchand has flourished into one of the league’s top forwards. But even during this season, which may end up being his best yet, some can’t grasp just how valuable he is.

Marchand is currently tied for 16th in the NHL in points this season (67) despite having played seven-to-twelve fewer games than every player ahead of him. On a points-per-game basis, he is holding on to fourth place (1.29 ppg) with MacKinnon leading the league (1.34 ppg). He is also a plus-31 through 51 games played, giving him the third best plus-minus in the league.

Much of Marchand’s great play has come recently, in what is the most critical time of the season. For comparative purposes, look at the New Jersey Devils’ Taylor Hall. Hall has garnered a lot of Hart buzz lately, having just wrapped up a very impressive 26-game point streak in which he totaled a whopping 38 points. In his last 26 games, Brad Marchand is just three points shy of Hall’s total, with 35. If you go back one game further, they both have 38.

On top of his personal achievements, Marchand is playing on one of the most productive lines in the NHL. When healthy, Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak is the best line in hockey. This isn’t even arguable. It’s a fact. As the kids say: “Don’t @ me.” They’ve been working magic like this all season:

In fact, before his injury you could have easily written an article about why Patrice Bergeron (54 points, plus-26 in 55 games) deserved Hart Trophy consideration this season. But even with Bergeron out and Riley Nash filling in, Marchand and the top line have continued to find the back of the net on a consistent basis.

An important part of the Hart Trophy voting is devoted to how well the candidates’ teams are doing. Marchand and the Bruins check this box as well.

The Boston Bruins (92 points) are having a Stanley Cup-caliber year. They are holding down the second spot in the Atlantic division with a 42-15-8 record. They also have the second best goal differential in the league (plus-53), behind only the Tampa Bay Lightning (plus-61). With seven game-winning goals (four of which have come in overtime), Marchand has been a fundamental part of the team’s success.

Numbers can’t measure everything. If spamming you with all that math was too much, then let’s consider other intangibles here. Even during all his personal success, Marchand remains a team-first guy:

He’s also surprisingly easygoing when it comes to the “rat” chirps:

This kind of reputation-building behavior factors in to the equation when a winner is being chosen. Let’s face it; reputation and image can play a part in garnering votes for such a prestigious award.

Marchand may have a slightly infamous past, but he’s moved past that. As should you. Stop hating Marchand for being a “pest” and start hating him because he just put your best defenseman in a blender, or made your favorite goalie look more like your friend’s brother-in-law who shows up to rec league games when your regular goalie is too hungover to play.

If the pest narrative is something you just can’t get past, well, Corey Perry won a Hart Trophy (2011). Yes, Corey Perry.  If you are sitting there thinking, “Well Corey Perry had 98 points that year,” I can counter that argument as well. Carey Price won the Hart in 2014-15 with only one point. Marchand already has 66 more points than Price did, and it’s still relatively early in March.

Joking aside, let’s get back to measurable success. Marchand’s incredible ability to score the puck is one of the reasons he deserves serious consideration. On Tuesday night, he showed us an example of these abilities, amassing five points (three goals, two assists) by doing things like this:

This:

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/971200828836065281

Oh, and this:

When it comes to the Hart trophy, Brad Marchand deserves as much consideration as anyone in the NHL, and he’s only going to improve his case in the final few weeks of the regular season.

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The next time you and your friends are discussing who should win the league’s coveted Hart Trophy, tell them you think it should be Brad Marchand. Without a doubt. And when they start berating you and saying things like, “You don’t know anything. You’re crazy! No one likes you, Bruin,” hit them with the cold hard facts.

Brad Marchand deserves to win the Hart Trophy.