With just a few months until the 2021-22 NHL season begins, sportsbooks have begun releasing odds for next year’s awards. While it’s always fun to predict which team will hoist the Stanley Cup, it’s also interesting to see who’ll win the NHL’s Most Valuable Player award, the Hart Memorial Trophy. At +350 odds, BetOnline is favoring that Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid will once again walk away with those honors.
McDavid is no stranger to the Hart Memorial Trophy as he’s already won it twice in the past five seasons. While his first time winning it was special, it doesn’t compete with the performance that he put on last year to win the award. Playing 56 games in a pandemic-shortened season, McDavid put up 33 goals and 72 assists for 105 points. To put that into perspective, his 1.41 points per game last season was the third-best average since 1990, trailing only Mario Lemieux (1.84) and Wayne Gretzky (1.43). Not only that, but his efforts made him the first unanimous Hart Trophy winner in nearly 40 years.
McDavid will enter his seventh season with the Oilers as their No. 1 player once again, which means we can expect another explosive campaign. With him turning 25 years old in January, there’s actually a solid chance that we haven’t even seen his best season yet. If that ends up happening this season, McDavid could join an exclusive club of players who’ve been Hart Trophy winners three or more times.
2021-22 NHL Hart Memorial Trophy Odds
Odds via BetOnline as of Tuesday, August 18
- Connor McDavid (+350)
- Nathan MacKinnon (+550)
- Auston Mathews (+750)
- Nikita Kucherov (+800)
- David Pastrnak (+1200)
- Artemi Panarin (+1400)
- Leon Draisaitl (+1400)
- Andrei Vasilevskiy (+1600)
- Brayden Point (+1600)
- Mikko Rantanen (+1600)
- Sebastian Aho (+1600)
Complete odds list is available at BetOnline.ag.
MacKinnon Hart Memorial Trophy Odds
Even though Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is only 25 years old, it feels like he’s been in the league a lot longer than he has. Nevertheless, the Halifax, NS native continues to get better with age. Ever since taking a huge step up in 2017-18, MacKinnon has scored at least 90 points in each of the past four seasons and was playing at a 1.35 point-per-game pace last year as well. Now, he has the second-best odds (+550) to win next year’s Hart Memorial Trophy.
No one has come closer to winning the Hart Trophy over the last few seasons than MacKinnon has. He’s finished second in voting for the award in two of the past four years and was a finalist again last year. Considering how he’s one of the NHL’s top centers, he’s clearly long overdue to win the trophy at least once. With the Avalanche expected to be Stanley Cup contenders in the 2021-22 NHL season, MacKinnon should have a solid shot at being named league MVP for the first time in his career.
Auston Matthews NHL MVP Odds
Placing third in BetOnline’s Hart Memorial Trophy odds list is none other than Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews. A former first overall pick in 2015, Matthews has been one of the NHL’s top scorers over the past several seasons. In fact, only Alexander Ovechkin’s (+3300) 2015 goals scored since 2017 are more than Matthews’ 199 during that span.
Now, the Toronto forward has +750 odds to win his first Hart Memorial Trophy. He was a finalist for the award this year — the first Leaf to be nominated in almost 30 years. Obviously, he ran into some bad luck as McDavid had one of the best seasons in the past 30 years. Aside from leading the Leafs to one of the top spots in the Eastern Conference, a 50- or 60-goal campaign would certainly help Matthews steal some votes in his favor. While that seems tough, he was on pace for 65 goals last year had he played in a full 82-game season, so never say never.
