With the NHL season more than halfway done, the MVP race is in full effect. But the media members in the NHL seem to be overlooking one of the more impactful and valuable players in the entire league – that being Quinn Hughes. In this video, I deep dive into why defensemen never seem to be considered for Hart trophies, and also why I think Hughes should be a frontrunner.
Hope you enjoy the video!
0:00 The Hart trophy is…broken
4:20 Why defensemen keep getting snubbed
5:56 Quinn Hughes is on an island by himself
11:00 It isn’t just the numbers
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36 Comments
If anyone's unfamiliar with the stats used and their definitions, almost all of them are from Natural Stat Trick which has a pretty good glossary: https://www.naturalstattrick.com/glossary.php?players. Hope this helps!
Of course, a biased Canucks supporter tries to create support for his players. Bottom line is there are far superior players on other teams, you are just blinded to the facts.,
If defensemen were better they’d be forwards
Thanks for analytics to support what we all witness. I’m worried for Hughes long term health with a coach who plays him despite an obvious hand injury. The Canucks know his value to the scoresheet!
Canucks fan here. All I want is our team to make the playoffs over Calgary and St Louis . 😑
If we make the the playoffs I'm gunna act like we won the Stanley cup and be running around screaming for a while.
Time to trade Quinn Hughes to New Jersey for Jesper Bratt.
There`re 3 D men having insane seasons: Makar, Hughes and Werenski, who is basically lifting Columbus up single handed.
Face it, the league has simply to many elite players. Kuch is insane, MacKinnon is insane, Draisaitl earned it, it`s him not McD carrying the Oilers. Eichel plays really good. Kaprizov has an outstanding season. Hellebuyck is insane. Add Werenski, Makar, Hughes – they are all elite players having fantastic seasons.
You`re basically pointing out the issue with individual awards.
Imagine thinking Hughes should deserve the Hart more than McDavid….. smh
The NHL has always and will always be a step behind in their way of thinking unless they accept change as it comes. They still havent figured out why viewership is down even though theyve made it impossible to watch unless youre in Canada. And they are attacking the best content creators bringing light to the sport. Embarrassing is right
Isn't this why we have the Norris?
Great video with solid arguments. Hughes has been better than last year, IMHO. I watch games just to see him. That said, two things work against him. Voters disregard d-men because they have their own award (not saying I agree with this but it seem to be the fact) and they don't like to give the mvp to players on non-playoff teams.
Great video with solid arguments. Hughes has been better than last year, IMHO. I watch games just to see him. That said, two things work against him. Voters disregard d-men because they have their own award (not saying I agree with this but it seem to be the fact) and they don't like to give the mvp to players on non-playoff teams.
I think it's hard for both d-men and goalies to win, because they have Norris and Vezina. If there was a separate "best forward" award we would see more d-men win the hart.
D-men have their own trophy, and, yes the NHL needs a best defensive defenseman award.
Quinn's the best player in the world.
The Hart is for the MVP of the league, not the MVP of their team.
Helley should be considered. Jackets are my team we love Z.last year Mcdavid wins MVP and lose to Panthers. No way Florida wins the cup without Bob. NHL integrity does not pass the eye test. Quinn is definitely Mvp status player .Been watching NHL every night for 45 years. NHL writer's write whatever the front office is trying to sell.
Part of the issue in this specific example is the Canucks mediocre season. There's nothing to do with Hughes' play, but it's definitely related.
Best player best defenseman hahaha yeah sure.. makar is better! Mcdavid is better hes not even top 10
Delusional Canucklehead fans. Your team is not even in the Playoffs. Hughes is a defensive liability.
Of the things NHL should be embarrassed by, this isnt even top-10.
could there be an argument for MVP? sure…. is he "comparable" to bobby orr? no.
They ain't even in the top 10 let alone top 5 ,maybe that is why.
Yuuup not worried one bit about making the playoffs 😁😁😁
Werenski and Makar still grade ahead of Quinn Hughes for me this year.
My guess is Eddie shore twice, Bobby Orr once, Did Lidstrom win it? Not many.
For most of the time NHL defensemen didn't score. Hmm Pronger.
Eddie Shore won the hart trophy four times.
Most valuable to his team. Vancouver isn't a playoff team and has a better deeper lineup. Colorado, Columbus, Edmonton are playoff teams.
Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar and Mackinnon are it in Colorado and Colorado is the better team. .
But more defensemen should win MVP.
Eh. Individual awards in a team sport will always be "tainted" by the team aspect. I.e., if you play on a good team, it's much more likely you will put up more points.
"Most valuable" award is subjective. What does it mean, most valuable? If we go "by the book", it should be something akin to an award for a player who is the most distinguished on his team. A player who is literally _the most valuable_, without whom the team's quality of play drops significantly. If you have a team with 5 top players, one of them cannot be MVP. But is that how others interpret it? Certainly not. To many, it simply means the "best" overall player, doesn't matter if there's 3 other top players on the team. These types of awards are not based on any metrics and will always be subjective to how the criteria is interpreted by the voters. By the either definition, however, I would certainly agree that Hughes should be getting votes.
I think, in the day and age of modern analytics, there's no reason why we can't create some statistic-based categories with no need for voting. I.e. "best defenseman" could be some formula combining shot blocks, takeaways, controlled zone exits, or what have you. Similar to the Jennings for goalies.
Still, as with any team sport there will always be an asterisk because any such metrics are affected by the quality of your teammates.
The real solution is not to put too much stock in the individual awards, and then all of this loses significance. It's a team sport, so we count the team trophies.
god you guys are the biggest whiners in the league
I love the Canucks but I can't help but feel bad for Hughes that he isn't on a better team… Imagine if he was on a team like Colorado, Vegas, Florida etc. He would be putting up legendary numbers. There would be no debate over who the best defenseman in the NHL was.
Goalies and Defensemen get criminally overlooked for the Hart and it pisses me off so much.
Vancouver fan detected!
Also cause there's no best forward award, but there's best defensemen and best goalie awards. so there's a bias to forwards first for that one
develop stats for puck possession / passing, setting up scoring chances, puck takeaways, defense zone coverage, and other?
I think there is other problems with the hart aswell. Last year kucherov was clearly the mvp to his team but they dont really seem to carr about the "most valuable" part, just who the best player is
Additional bias because Hughes plays on the west coast. Most hockey writers, who actually vote for the trophies, are asleep by the time the western games are on.