NHL Awards Rankings: New No. 1 in MVP race

3. Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning

Nikita Kucherov has a real case to be the league MVP, but the Tampa Bay Lightning are outside of a playoff position as of this writing. There is so much going wrong on Florida's West Coast. Andrei Vasilevskiy was hurt for a good portion of the season, and he's been inconsistent since he returned from a back injury. Steven Stamkos' contract situation has been a conversation piece for this team. Years of cap gymnastics now has this team replacing players for peanuts.

With all that, Nikita Kucherov is still the NHL league leader in points. He has 47 points this season. He has seven more points than anyone in the league and 16 points than anyone else on the Lightning. Kucherov isn't just getting garbage points, either. His 19 goals are also tied for the league lead. Kucherov is doing his best to carry the Lightning to a playoff spot.

Kucherov is taking everything that's being given to him. He has 261 individual chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. That's also a league lead and 10 more than David Pastrnak (more on him later). He is throwing everything at the net. For most players, that's not a good thing. For a player as good as Nikita Kucherov, that's a great thing.

One would expect the Lightning to be in a better position in the standings once Vasilevskiy gets healthier, but the Eastern Conference is insane. Eleven teams are going after five playoff spots and there are within eight points of each other. Kucherov needs to have his team in a playoff spot if he has any chance at the Hart Trophy.