Sports Illustrated recently revealed their top names to watch for the Hart Trophy in 2025-26, and nobody on the list was surprising.
It was Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak, and the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon. They even listed Connor Hellebuyck, who won it last season.
Aside from Pastrnak, all of them have won a Hart since 2019-20.
I’m sure Hellebuyck was on this list simply because he’s the reigning MVP. The Winnipeg Jets netminder is only the second goalie since 2002 to win the Hart Trophy and the first non-Montreal Canadiens goalie since Dominik Hasek in 1998.
But the biggest omission from this list, at least to me, is Cale Makar. We haven’t seen a defenseman win the Hart since Chris Pronger did it in 2000 for the St. Louis Blues. And that’s probably why Makar and other blueliners like Quinn Hughes are an afterthought.
Can this be the year Makar ends that drought? I still can’t imagine he goes his entire career without winning at least one of these. But what would it take?
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I genuinely believe an NHL season like what we saw last year is the best way for a non-forward to win it. That’s likely why Hellebuyck took home the honors.
In the two seasons before 2024-25, we saw McDavid put up 153 and 130 points, Nikita Kucherov record 144, and MacKinnon have 140. But last year, only Kucherov passed the 120-point mark, and he did it by a single point.
MacKinnon dropped back to 116, which was good for second place. The next closes guy after that was 10 points behind. McDavid finished sixth with 100 points in 67 games.
These are all incredible numbers, but the fall-off in production from previous seasons opened the door for Hellebuyck. (Winning 47 games in this day and age also helps.)
If another season unfolds like that — one where we don’t see a special out-of-this-world season from a forward that separates them from the pack — then perhaps Makar can swoop in and start to gain votes around the league.
Having MacKinnon as a teammate will always make this harder to accomplish. For example, we’ve seen Mikko Rantanen on ballots when he was with the Avalanche, but voters often leaned on MacKinnon as the Avs’ most valuable player.
But Rantanen moving on opens an opportunity for Makar to be an even bigger offensive weapon for Colorado. Which in itself is funny to say out loud because he had a career-high 92 points last year.
Can he hit 100 this year? Can he do it while again reaching 30 goals? Will that be enough to really get more attention from voters?
There’s something to be said about voter fatigue, and it’s probably why McDavid doesn’t win this thing every year. If, for example, MacKinnon finishes with 115–120 points again, and Makar breaks the 100-point barrier, I can see him start to take attention away from the team’s No. 1 center. Especially because of what he’ll likely do at the other end of the ice while producing offensively.
That just might be what it’ll take.
