Daniel Sedin Would Be the Winner of the Wayne Gretzky Trophy

You might have looked at this title and wondered, "What is the Wayne Gretzky Trophy?"  So before I confuse anybody let me just state off the top that such an award doesn't exist.

But it should.

Every day from now until the awards ceremony, you will hear constant so-called experts telling you who should win the Hart Trophy, the league MVP. Will it be Daniel Sedin?   Steven Stamkos? Tim Thomas? Or someone else?

Just today, the lead NHL story on Bleacher Report is a top-10 list of MVP candidates. I don't blame the writer for doing such an article because it is always a fun debate and a worthy topic.

However, let's put this nonsense to rest, shall we?

The NHL needs to come up with a new award to give to the Most Outstanding Player and call it the Wayne Gretzky Trophy. 

This would accomplish numerous goals for the league.

1. It would honor the "Great One" with an award that is worthy of his name.

2. It will finally solve the teeth-grinding debates that we see every year.

3. It allows us to clearly differentiate between an MVP and best player in a season.

The last point is the one I want to talk about the most.

If you follow the strict definition of Most Valuable Player, you will ask yourself, "Which player is the most valuable to his team?"

This is obviously different than "who is the most outstanding player?"

Can they be the same in any given season? Absolutely. Sometimes a player is both, and if he is, then he should be recognized as such.

But often times, he is not.

Even more, all roles on a team are not created equal. Goalies by default have the most "value" to a team in a game, series or Cup run. If you have bad goaltending, you don't stand much of a chance on a given night. If your best player has a crappy night, a team can overcome that a lot of the time.

Even defensemen have a more critical role than forwards on a team. There are less of them, and the top guys log up to 30 minutes a game.

These factors complicate the MVP debate even further, but by creating a new award, we can satisfy both groups of candidates.

This season is a great example.

Daniel Sedin and Steven Stamkos have been the best players this season. I could be wrong, but that is how I see it.

Meanwhile, Tim Thomas, Pekka Rinne and Jonathan Toews have been the most valuable to their teams, but not necessarily the 'best'.

There are currently a lot more pressing issues on the table for owners, players and fans to worry about—player safety being chief among them.

But would it take a long time to talk this over in the offseason for 10 minutes and make it happen?

If they can create a Rocket Richard trophy for the most goals in a season, then surely they can honor the best player in NHL history, too.

Wayne Gretzky still remains one of the most endorsed athlete in all of sports, despite the fact that he's been retired forever.

Creating such an award now would be the perfect time. The league could use the positive PR.

Don't you think?