By Georgia Dogantzis, The Hockey News intern
This time of year isn't only reserved for the excitement of the Stanley Cup final but also to celebrate this year’s NHL award winners.
Though only regular-season performances are considered in the voting process for most awards, each finalist for the Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy had playoff appearances this season. The winners for both awards will be revealed during the NHL’s one-hour awards program, airing at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Let’s look at each finalist for those awards and whether playoff performances would have influenced the result.
Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers, Hart Trophy Finalist
Given his performance in the regular season and Stanley Cup playoffs, it’s easy to see why Draisaitl made the cut.
Draisaitl led the NHL with 52 goals and tied for third with 106 points in the regular season. Even though he only played 71 games due to injury, he still proved crucial to his team’s success, with 11 game-winning goals, a 54.4 faceoff win percentage and a 5-5-1 record when he wasn’t in the lineup. After all, he also claimed the Hart Trophy in the shortened 2019-20 season with the same number of games played.
In last year’s playoffs, Draisaitl’s hand and rib injuries prevented him from performing to his fullest. Healthier this time around, he’s played in each of the Oilers’ 19 playoff games, and he leads his team with 10 goals, has three game-winning goals and is second in the league with 19 assists and 29 points. The center helped the Oilers virtually steamroll through three playoff rounds, cementing himself as an essential part of Edmonton’s backbone.
Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning, Hart Trophy Finalist
Kucherov has played a lot of hockey during his time in the NHL, considering he’s been in the playoffs in 11 of his 12 career seasons. Assuming the miles would affect the 31-year-old would be wrong, as he continues to dominate the stat sheet.
In 78 regular-season games, he led the NHL with 84 assists, 121 points and 46 power-play points while tying for third with nine game-winning goals. Kucherov has already won the Art Ross Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award this season, and he could win the Hart again after capturing it in 2018-19.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion knows how to get the job done. However, with a lackluster first-round exit to the Florida Panthers this year, Kucherov didn’t have much time to rack up points.
Tallying four points in five games, his best performance came in Tampa’s only win in Game 3 against the Panthers, when he put up three assists to secure the 5-1 victory. If that means anything, it shows the effect the alternate captain has as a leader of the team.
Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets, Hart Trophy And Vezina Trophy Finalist
This year marks the third straight season and fifth time that Connor Hellebuyck has been a Vezina finalist. He put up a league-leading 47 wins, 2.00 goals-against average and eight shutouts in the regular season. He allowed just two goals or fewer 40 times and one or fewer 27 times.
The netminder’s 0.925 save percentage propelled the Jets to the Presidents’ Trophy and the William M. Jennings Trophy. His steadiness also made him a first-time Hart finalist, and he could become the first goalie to win since Carey Price in 2014-15.
The 6-foot-4 netminder performs consistently in the regular season, yet continuously falls short in the playoffs. In 13 playoff games this year, Hellebuyck recorded two shutouts, but he went 6-7 with a 3.08 GAA and .866 SP.
After losing to the Dallas Stars in six games, the Jets have only one series win in the past three years, putting Hellebuyck’s ability to handle high-pressure situations into question.
Darcy Kuemper, Los Angeles Kings, Vezina Trophy Finalist
At 35 years old, Kuemper is a first-time Vezina finalist. Playing for the Kings back in 2017-18, he moved between teams before reuniting with them in June 2024. He played 50 games for them this season.
Among goalies who played at least 20 games, Kuemper finished second in the league with a 2.02 GAA, third with a .922 SP and tied for fourth with five shutouts. For the first time since 2015-16, the Kings secured the second spot in the Pacific Division.
In his first post-season since his Stanley Cup win with the Colorado Avalanche in 2021-22, the Kings fell to the Oilers in six games in the first round. He posted two wins, four losses, a 3.74 GAA and a .889 SP in his lone playoff series.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vezina Trophy Finalist
The Lightning’s perennial starter finished the regular season near the top of many stat categories. With 11 seasons and two Stanley Cup championships to his name, this past regular season was one of his most efficient.
In 63 games, he finished second with 38 wins, fourth among goalies who played at least 20 games with a 2.18 GAA, fourth with a .921 SP and tied for second with six shutouts. Facing the second-most shots at 1,716 and playing a league-leading 3743:05 minutes, this year marks his fifth time as a Vezina finalist.
Given all he faced during the regular season, the 2018-19 Vezina winner helped his team clinch the second spot in the Atlantic Division. Without much time to prove his caliber in a first-round loss to the Panthers, he finished the series with a 3.27 GAA and .872 SP. Although the playoffs didn’t turn out great, the regular-season numbers prove why it is too early to make any negative assumptions about his game.
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