NEW YORK — Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl and Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck are finalists for the Hart Trophy, the NHL announced Thursday.
Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov is the third nominee for the award, which is given annually to the player judged most valuable to his team.
Draisaitl, from Cologne, Germany, led the NHL with 52 goals to win the Rocket Richard Trophy and added 54 assists for 106 points, helping Edmonton finish third in the Pacific Division. He previously won the Hart in 2020.
"Some tremendous players that have won it," Draisaitl said Thursday before the Oilers faced the visiting Los Angeles Kings in Game 6 of their first-round series. "To be able to be in that conversation with some great other players, it's a great honour, very proud of it and happy that I get to be part of it."
Hellebuyck led the NHL with 47 wins, a 2.00 GAA, and a .925 save percentage, adding eight shutouts while guiding Winnipeg to its first Presidents’ Trophy. The 31-year-old, who is a Vezina Trophy finalist and already captured the William M. Jennings Trophy, is the first player in franchise history to be named a Hart finalist.
He aims to become the fourth netminder in the expansion era (since 1967-68) to win the award, joining Dominik Hasek (1997, 1998), José Théodore (2002), and Carey Price (2015).
“Yeah, that's an amazing accomplishment, obviously, to be in the running with those names," Jets coach Scott Arneil said in Winnipeg on Thursday before the his team left for St. Louis for Game 6 of its series with the Blues.
"That's a huge honour and well-deserved, in my eyes and certainly in his teammates’, the Winnipeg organization, (we’re) awfully proud of what he's accomplished. We know what he means to us and at the end of the day, for him to be in the running, it doesn't happen very often with goalies. He can be very proud of that."
Kucherov, from Maykop, Russia, topped the NHL with 121 points to capture his third Art Ross Trophy. The 2019 Hart winner helped Tampa Bay reach the playoffs for the eighth straight season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025.
The Canadian Press
