Hart Memorial Trophy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hart Memorial Trophy |
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| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Given for | Most Valuable Player to his team in regular season of the National Hockey League |
| History | |
| First award | 1924 |
| First winner | Frank Nighbor |
| Most wins | Wayne Gretzky (9) |
| Most recent | Connor Hellebuyck Winnipeg Jets |
The Hart Memorial Trophy is a super important award in the world of ice hockey. It's given out every year to the player who is considered the most valuable player (MVP) to their team in the National Hockey League (NHL). Imagine being the player who helps your team the most! That's what this award is all about.
Members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association vote for the winner. This means sports journalists and writers who watch a lot of hockey decide who gets the trophy. The award started way back in 1923. It was first called the Hart Trophy.
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What is the Hart Memorial Trophy?
The Hart Memorial Trophy is named after Dr. David Hart. He was a Canadian doctor who loved hockey. He gave the first trophy to the NHL in 1923. Dr. Hart's son, Cecil Hart, was a famous coach and general manager for the Montreal Canadiens hockey team for a long time.
The very first player to win this award was Frank Nighbor from the Ottawa Senators in the 1923–24 season. The original trophy was used until 1960. Then, it was moved to the Hockey Hall of Fame so everyone could see it. A new trophy was made, and that's when it became known as the Hart Memorial Trophy.
Who are the Top Winners?
One of the most famous winners is Wayne Gretzky. He won the award a record nine times! Eight of those wins were in a row, which is amazing. Gretzky and his Edmonton Oilers teammate Mark Messier are the only players to win the Hart Trophy with more than one team.
It's pretty rare for a player to win the award when everyone agrees they are the best. This has only happened twice. Both times, it was an Edmonton Oilers player: Wayne Gretzky in the 1981–82 season and Connor McDavid in the 2020–21 season.
Players from the Montreal Canadiens have won the award more than any other team, with seventeen wins. The Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers are next, with thirteen winners each.
It's also not very common for a goalie to win the Hart Trophy. Only eight different goalies have won it. Dominik Hašek is the only goalie to win it twice.
How is the Winner Chosen?
At the end of the regular hockey season, members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association vote for the Hart Trophy. Each voter picks their top five players. They give points based on how they rank them:
- 10 points for their first choice
- 7 points for their second choice
- 5 points for their third choice
- 3 points for their fourth choice
- 1 point for their fifth choice
After all the votes are counted, the three players with the most points are announced as finalists. The winner is then revealed at the NHL Awards ceremony, which happens after the playoffs are over.
The closest vote ever happened in the 2001–02 season. Jose Theodore and Jarome Iginla ended up with the same total points! To break the tie, they looked at who had more first-place votes. Theodore won because he had 86 first-place votes, while Iginla had 82.
List of Winners
| ^ | This means the player is still playing in the NHL. |
| * | This means the player is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. |
| ~ | This means the player is not playing anymore but isn't old enough to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame yet. |
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This means the player's team also won the Stanley Cup that year. |
| Player (X) | This shows how many times the player had won the Hart Trophy by that point. |
| Team (X) | This shows how many times a player from this team had won by that point. |
Images for kids
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The first winner of the original trophy, Frank Nighbor
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Elmer Lach with the original trophy in 1945
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Nels Stewart, first two-time winner
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Bobby Clarke, three-time winner
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Wayne Gretzky, record nine-time winner
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Mario Lemieux, three-time winner
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Sergei Fedorov, first European-trained Hart-winning player, one-time winner
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Alexander Ovechkin, three-time winner
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Sidney Crosby, two-time winner
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Joe Thornton, the only player to switch clubs during his winning season, one-time winner
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Connor McDavid, three-time winner
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See also
In Spanish: Trofeo Hart para niños
- Ted Lindsay Award
- List of NHL statistical leaders
