After another disappointing Toronto Maple Leafs playoff loss, it's time to break up the core four forwards and that might mean moving on from Mitch Marner, who becomes a free agent at the end of the 2024-25 season. Amidst award season in the NHL, the league announced Wednesday morning that Toronto Maple Leafs’ superstar Auston Matthews was deemed one of the three most outstanding players as voted on by the NHLPA (NHL Players’ Association) – making him a finalist for the prestige Ted Lindsay Award, an accolade he has already won once in 2021-22. Matthews joins Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) as a finalist for the award. After winning his third Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy in four seasons following a career-high 69-goal season, his nomination for the Ted Lindsay Award will be tacked on to the list of possible trophies he could be adding to his collection for the 2023-24 season including the Frank J. Selke Trophy and the Lady Byng Trophy. An award the 107 point-getter will surprisingly be missing out on is the NHL’s Hart Memorial Trophy, given to the NHL’s Most Valuable Player. For the majority of the 2023-24 season, Auston Matthews looked to be in line as a sure candidate for his second Hart Memorial Trophy after scoring an impressive 69 goals – the most since Mario Lemieux in 1995-1996 and salary cap era. In one of the most competitive fields in recent memory, the NHL announced on Tuesday the three finalists for the award; Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche), and Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers) – leaving Matthews on the outside looking in. The Hart Memorial Trophy is an NHL award voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association for the league's most valuable player. In a year where the award could have gone to a multitude of different players including but not limited to, Matthews, Artemi Panarin (New York Rangers), and David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins), the snub still comes as a surprise given the record-breaking season he amounted to. When you look deeper into the statistics of the three finalists, there is an argument that they deserve to be there – but so does Matthews. MacKinnon racked up a 51-goal and 140-point season, and McDavid and Kucherov had career-high 100-assist seasons with 144 and 132 points, respectively. Matthews set a career-high in goals (69) and points (107) and was named a finalist for the Frank J. Selke Trophy – establishing himself as one of the league’s top-three defensive forwards. Although the three finalists tallied more points than Matthews, the common denominator lies in the fact all three played on a line with a 40-goal scorer, whereas Matthews did not have that luxury. As Matthews needed to produce more on his own terms, he ranked 14th in secondary assists this season while the trio of MacKinnon (#4, with 39), Kucherov (#5, with 38), and McDavid (#6, with 38), were among the top players that led the league in that category this year per moneypuck.com [https://moneypuck.com/stats.htm]. Offensively, Matthews led the league in even-strength goals. From a team standpoint, he tallied 18 of the team's 57 goals (31.5%) on the power play while scoring 69 of the Maple Leafs’ 298 total goals (23.1%) in the regular season. If we are talking about being the most valuable to your team, Matthews certainly fits the mold. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt_a8qz-gWA[/embed] With that said, there can be an argument for Leafs fans that Matthews was a snub for MVP, given the fact he put up nine more goals and more points this season than in 2021-22 when he won his first Hart Memorial Trophy. 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