Despite being voted a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award by his peers, Macklin Celebrini was not voted a finalist for the Hart Trophy by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
A record-breaking season wasn't enough to earn San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini enough votes to qualify as a finalist for the Hart Trophy. Instead, the award will be presented to Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning, or Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche.
Celebrini led his team in points, setting the new franchise record in the process, with 115. The next closest player on the Sharks was Will Smith, who finished with 59. The 56-point gap between the Sharks' top two scorers was the largest in the NHL.
Celebrini's point total allowed him to finish fourth in the NHL, behind only the three aforementioned finalists, at just 19 years old. Of course, age isn't supposed to be factored into the voting process, but that doesn't mean it's not an impressive feat.
The time will come for Macklin Celebrini to win the Hart Trophy assuming he continues to develop into one of the league's top players as he has to this point, but that time won't come this season.
At just 19 years of age, Celebrini will have close to two decades to earn himself some hardware with the San Jose Sharks. With that being said, he's still a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award, which is given to the most valuable player as voted upon by the players, which will be presented later this spring.