The odes have poured forth to Jaromir Jagr all season. And though each and every sonnet directed at the fabled No. 68 is richly deserved, so in fact is a larger prize.
For Jagr is not only worthy of admiration, he is in fact worthy of the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP, 17 years after he won it for the first and only time.
Judgement, of course, is rendered on a subjective basis, but go ahead, you tell me: What player in the NHL has been more valuable to his team than Jagr, who is having a Second Career Year and around whom the historically ineffectual Puddy Tats have coalesced to become one of the NHL’s emerging nations?
One point of contention during the debate, typically used when arguing who is more valuable to a team, is the “take the player off the team” angle, comparing how the Capitals and Penguins would be if Ovechkin and Malkin were not in the lineup. Obviously, both teams have decent talent around them that if they were not in the lineup one night, they wouldn’t suffer too poorly.
While Ovechkin and Malkin are pretty much certain to have their names included on the final list of MVP nominees, who deserves to fill the third slot?
In a more general sense, which one of the following players deserves the hardware?
Check out the list and cast your vote.
I buy into the argument that the Hart should go to the player adjudged most valuable [to] his team. If you want a flat-out best player in a single season award, call it the Wayne Gretzky and we’ll move on, but whatever criteria you use to determine this thing the guard has clearly been changed. The new generation of NHL stars has arrived and, for now at least, Ovechkin and Crosby or Crosby and Ovechkin are likely to lead the way.
That doesn’t augur well for stellar stay-at-home defencemen or 2.00 and lower Goals Against Average goalies, but so be it.
Update 11:28am ET: More thoughts on the Hart from Jeff Z. Klein at Slap Shot in the New York Times.
Alexander Ovechkin is the winner of the 2008 Hart Trophy as the National Hockey League’s most valuable player to his team.
That is, according to the NHL’s online shop for a few hours on Friday.
The league’s official website briefly displayed a blue Reebok Washington Capitals T-Shirt of the Russian superstar, with the title ‘2007-08 Hart Trophy winner’ splashed across the bottom.
“The Hart Memorial Trophy, originally known as the Hart Trophy, the “oldest and most prestigious individual award in hockey,” is awarded annually to the Most Valuable Player in the National Hockey League,” the sales page read.
A league source attributed the gaffe to a mistake by a third-party distributor, while pointing out shirts are created for every possible scenario. Should Ovechkin not win, the T-shirts would be destroyed.