Leon Draisaitl wins 2020 Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award

The Edmonton Oilers center holds off Nathan MacKinnon and Artemi Panarin to win the 2020 Hart Trophy.

The 2020 NHL season is nearing reaching it’s conclusion as the Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning duke it out for the Stanley Cup after eight COVID-less weeks inside the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles. Given that we’re living through unprecedented times, the NHL has opted to announce the end of season winners throughout the playoffs, instead of at their annual award show.

On Monday, the league announced that Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player, as voted on by the Pro Hockey Writers Association. Additionally, Draisaitl also won the Ted Lindsay Award, which is given to the league’s most valuable player voted on by the NHL Player’s Association.

Draisaitl received 91 out of 170 first-place votes and finished with 1,309 total points to clinch the award. Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon came in second place with 1,162 points and New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin finished in third place with 889 points.

Draisaitl led the entire league in points by significant margin

This season, Draisaitl was the. only player in the entire league to tally over 100 points, as he recorded 110 in 71 games. The second-most points in the league belonged to teammate Connor McDavid. While Draisaitl scored 43 goals (fourth-most in NHL), he led his colleagues with 67 assists. Those numbers could have increased if the coronavirus pandemic didn’t strike North America and forced the regular-season to end in March.

To make this esteemed honor even greater for Draisaitl, he’s now the first-ever German-born player to win the Hart Trophy.

The Oilers looked like legitimate Stanley Cup favorites prior to the league’s temporary shutdown. They held a 37-25-9 record and were scored the third-most goals in the entire Western Conference (225 goals for), but the momentum they carried fizzled out at the start of the league’s return-to-play plan. As the No. 5 seed in the Wetsern Conference, the Oilers were defeated by the No. 12 Chicago Blackhawks in four games, which can mostly be credited by the poor goaltending. It makes you wonder just how well the Oilers would have done if the world wasn’t turned upside down by the spread of COVID-19.

No matter the case, Draisaitl can always call himself the 2019-20 MVP.

Other winners on the night include Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators earning the Norris Trophy for best defenseman, Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets winning the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender and Cale Makar of the Avalanche taking home the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year.