Pros and Cons of Each 2015 NHL Hart Trophy Finalist

Given to the player deemed most valuable in the league to his team, the NHL's Hart Trophy is the most coveted of the annual awards because it covers every position.

This year's nominees, announced Wednesday, include an outstanding netminder in Carey Price, the league's goal-scoring leader in Alex Ovechkin, and a captain in John Tavares who helped turn a team back into a playoff performer while carrying the offensive load on his back all year long.

In a year when the NHL witnessed no 100-point players and plenty of parity in the scoring race, it's no wonder a goaltender is favored.

All three of the finalists had amazing seasons by any standard. We take a look at the pros and cons of each of them.

Carey Price, G, Montreal Canadiens

Pros:

Price is the heavy favorite for a number of reasons. He led the league in wins with 44, in goals-against average with a 1.96, and in save percentage with a .933. According to NHL.com, he's the first goalie to lead in all those categories since Ed Belfour in 1990-91 with the Chicago Blackhawks.

While all those numbers could be influenced by strong team play in front of him, it's not the case with the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs made things difficult on their goaltender in a number of ways. Using advanced stats via Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com, the Canadiens were the 23rd-ranked team in Corsi for percentage at 48.5—among playoff teams, only the Calgary Flames were lower.

They were in the bottom third (21st) in shots allowed per game with an average of 30.1, and Price didn't get much in the way of offensive support with the Canadiens also being in the bottom third in goals scored per game (their 2.61 was good for 20th in the NHL). And the team still claimed the William M. Jennings Trophy for the lowest goals against on the season.

Without the quick reflexes of their all-star netminder, the Atlantic Division winners may not even have made the playoffs.

Cons:

Aside from the fact that Marc-Andre Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins had more shutouts—10 to Price's nine—it's tough to find fault in his game or nomination.

Goaltenders don't often win the award, which is often given to who's perceived as the best player in the league rather than the most valuable to his team. Price is probably both this season.

If we look hard enough, we might point out his tendency to either be really good or fairly bad with little in the way of middle ground in his games. Among his 16 losses in regulation were nine games allowing four or more goals against. In 37 of his 44 victories, he allowed two or fewer against.

Hey, I said it was tough to find flaws for him this year.

Alexander Ovechkin, LW, Washington Capitals

Pros:

Ovechkin led the league in goals for the third straight year and for the fifth time in his 10 NHL seasons. As far as pure goal scoring goes, he's proved time and again he's the best. He finished with 53 of them this year, 10 more than the next-closest sniper, Steven Stamkos. Impressive, given the overall drop in scoring this season. It's something he's done three times, which only a handful of players have accomplished.

Including Ovechkin, there are only six players who have ever had six 50-goal seasons. He led the league in shots (395), power-play goals (25) and game-winning goals (11). His overall point total of 81 is also Ovechkin's highest since 2010-11, and he turned his plus/minus rating around from an eye-popping minus-35 a year ago—the second-worst in the league—to a much more respectable plus-10.

Another attribute that separates him from others of his ilk is his physical nature. He tied for 10th in the league, regardless of position, with 259 hits. No other player in the top 20 cracked the 60-point mark.

Cons:

Despite the tremendous turnaround in his plus/minus number, there are nights when Ovechkin still cheats a little on the offensive side. And despite the fact that he takes a massive number of shots, his possession numbers don't even put him in the top 80 forwards, according to Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com.

His numbers are also extremely dependent on the power play. He netted 25 of his 53 goals with the man advantage and had 47 of his 81 points in that situation—a whopping 58 percent. When you rank the league's top point producers based solely on five-on-five play, Ovechkin ranks 20th, as opposed to fourth.

His sniping ability will never be questioned, but his overall contributions at even strength aren't enough to suggest he's the most valuable to his team in controlling games.

John Tavares, C, New York Islanders

Pros:

If not for a late outburst by Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn in the final regular-season game of the season, Tavares would already have a piece of hardware awaiting him at the NHL awards festivities in Las Vegas in June. Benn's four-point outburst in the last game left Tavares as the runner-up in the scoring race with 86 points—one off the league's top total.

Helping his claim as the most valuable player in the league to his team is how far any of his teammates were to him in offensive contributions. His right-hand man, Kyle Okposo, finished next with 51 points in 60 games. Granted, that prorates to closer to 70 had he played every game this season. But compare that to, say, Ovechkin's three-point lead over his setup man, Nicklas Backstrom, and there's at least reasonable doubt as to who is driving that production in Washington.

Okposo's extended absence proved Tavares makes everyone he plays with better. Anders Lee and Josh Bailey were the primary beneficiaries, as they spent more time on the Tavares line. Lee had nine goals and 19 points in the 22 games Okposo missed, contributing to nearly half of his 41-point season. Bailey had six goals and 15 points in that span, contributing to a career-high 41 points.

From an advanced stats standpoint, Tavares' 54.7 Corsi percentage was second on the team, but the dip was noticeable behind him. More significantly, his teammates' Corsi ratings dropped significantly without Tavares on the ice, according to Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com.

Cons:

There isn't much to criticize, but Tavares was definitely given every opportunity to perform offensively, starting 67.8 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone, according to BehindtheNet.ca. That put him third among all centers in that category, behind Chicago Blackhawks pivot Brad Richards and the Nashville Predators' Mike Ribeiro. 

There is also the fact that Tavares averaged the most ice time among all NHL forwards but spent fewer than three minutes on the penalty kill all season. Not that this is an uncommon practice for a team's top scorer, but it opens the argument against him being a complete player.

At just 24, he's still young with room to improve. That's scary when you think of what he's accomplished already. But until he becomes more involved on the defensive side of the statistics, he'll always have some critics.

Steve Macfarlane has covered the NHL for more than a decade, including seven seasons following the Calgary Flames for the Calgary Sun. Follow him on Twitter at @macfarlaneHKY