Hart Trophy Top 5: Who's Leading the Race as the NHL's MVP?

The season's half over. The playoff races are taking shape.

And the best players have separated themselves from the NHL's rank and file.

Put it all together and it seems an ideal time for some end-of-year award forecasting.

With that in mind, it seemed like a good time to analyze the Hart Trophy discussion and come up with a list of players most likely to garner MVP consideration when the season ends in late April.

Team performance and individual stats were taken into consideration for the criteria.

Some of the players who made the final cut have won the trophy before, while others have grabbed different NHL hardware, and one insurgent is making his first real pitch toward inclusion among the elite.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a line or two with your views in the comments section.

5. Nazem Kadri, C, Colorado Avalanche

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Nazem Kadri is a known commodity in the NHL office.

He's racked up multiple suspensions in a career that's touched 13 seasons, and he's well-deservedly on the short list of the league's most notorious players.

But he's something else this year, too: One of the league's best players.

The 31-year-old center is reveling in his third full season with the powerful Colorado Avalanche, racking up 61 points in his first 42 games and participating in his first All-Star Game after earning a Last Man In fan vote.

The point total leads the NHL's No. 2 scoring team (4.07 goals per game) and it's fourth in the NHL behind high-profile trophy-copping names such as Leon Draisaitl, Jonathan Huberdeau and Connor McDavid.

He's surrounded by high-end talent on his own team—Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, among others—so he might not get enough first-place votes to get near the Hart finish line come late spring, but there's little room to argue that Kadri hasn't been a vital piece in Colorado's push to the top of the league.

4. Connor McDavid, C, Edmonton Oilers

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Wait! This has got to be a misprint, right?!

Connor McDavid is already the league's reigning MVP and scoring leader and has two Hart trophies and three Art Ross trophies in his impossibly large-for-a-25-year-old hardware collection.

He's among the league leaders in assists (40), points (63) and points per game (1.43) this season and is a consistent, consensus selection as the world's best active player.

So he's got to be the clear MVP favorite again, right?

Well, maybe not.

Despite the individual heroics of McDavid and Draisaitl, the Oilers are languishing on the outside of the playoff bracket through 45 games—fifth in the Pacific Division and four points out of a wild-card position.

Oh sure, No. 97 will still get some emeritus Hart votes come season's end, but unless Edmonton executes a dramatic second-half role reversal, it's probably someone else's race to lose this year.

3. Alex Ovechkin, LW, Washington Capitals

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Speaking of emeritus votes, we present Alex Ovechkin.

The 36-year-old winger has already won three Harts in addition to a scoring title, a Stanley Cup and nine Rocket Richard trophies for leading the league in goals, so he's a habitual inclusion during awards time.

But let's not pretend he doesn't deserve consideration in 2021-22.

The Russian sniper has had 29 goals and 59 points in his first 47 games while climbing to fourth on the NHL's all-time goal-scoring list (759) behind only Wayne Gretzky (894), Gordie Howe (801) and Jaromir Jagr (766).

He was selected to his 12th All-Star Game and was set to captain the Metropolitan Division team, but a positive COVID-19 test snuffed out the trip to Las Vegas. Instead, he returned from the break with an assist in his first game back and sits fifth in the league's point-scoring race.

The Capitals are comfortably in control of the Eastern Conference's wild-card race and just six points out of first in the Metropolitan, so it's likely Ovechkin will play in the sort of important games down the stretch that will help him boost his chances to cop himself a fourth Hart.

And when it comes to name recognition, he's certainly a favorite.

2. Auston Matthews, C, Toronto Maple Leafs

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Welcome to Ovechkin 2.0.

OK, Auston Matthews plays center instead of wing, was born in the U.S. and not Russia and is 12 years younger than his gray-bearded contemporary.

But when it comes to automatic goal scorers, they're a dynamic, prolific duo.

Only one player (Ovechkin, 234) has scored more goals than Matthews (230) since the start of the 2016-17 season, and the American has done it in 30 fewer games.

They are third and fourth in the league's goal-scoring race—Matthews 31, Ovechkin 29—putting the youngster well ahead of a pace that'd get him beyond the career-high 47 he scored in 2019-20 and into the 50-plus territory that Ovechkin's reached eight times since debuting in 2005-06.

It won't have an impact on this year's Hart vote, but Toronto's dubious postseason history doesn't help Matthews when it comes to an MVP-like vibe.

Still, if the 6'3", 205-pounder can score (hint...60 goals is a nice round number) the Maple Leafs to a prime playoff position—they're third overall in points percentage—he'll go a long way toward reinventing himself in the eyes of Hart voters.

1. Jonathan Huberdeau, LW, Florida Panthers

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Hockey fans have known about Jonathan Huberdeau for years.

He was drafted third overall by the Florida Panthers in 2011, debuted with a three-point game in January 2013 and finished his initial NHL season by taking home a Calder Trophy.

He became a point-per-game player in 2018-19, has maintained that status through two more full seasons and is aiming at a fourth straight thanks to 64 points in 47 games in 2021-22.

The point total is one behind Edmonton's Draisaitl for the league's best, while his 47 assists are five better than the tab run up by Kadri in Colorado.

His prowess is certainly helping the Panthers too.

Florida has the most standings points (69) in the Eastern Conference and a one-point advantage over two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division.

And while there is certainly other high-end talent on the roster in metropolitan Miami—linemate Aleksander Barkov has won both a Selke and a Lady Byng and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has two Vezinas—no other player has had as much of a hand in the team's ascension as Huberdeau.

So unless the second half goes off the rails, he has a legitimate shot at winning the Hart.