{"id":554093,"date":"2026-04-16T21:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554093\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:39:38","slug":"nhl-legend-wayne-gretzky-announces-his-2026-hart-trophy-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554093\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Legend Wayne Gretzky Announces His 2026 Hart Trophy Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL\u2019s<\/a> Hart Trophy race has remained one of the biggest storylines heading into the final day of the regular season, with three of the league\u2019s biggest stars separated from the chasing pack.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Nikita Kucherov have each built strong cases<\/a>, producing elite scoring totals while leading their respective teams into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Edmonton Oilers center McDavid enters the regular-season finale with the most points (134) in the NHL<\/a>. Colorado Avalanche forward McKinnon (127) leads the league in goals with 53. Tampa Bay Lightning winger Kucherov is tied for the most assists with 86 and only trails McDavid in total points (130).<\/p>\n

As the debate will soon come to an end among voters, NHL legend Wayne Gretzky issued a decisive answer<\/a> on who he personally believes deserves the award following the end of the 2026-26 NHL season.<\/p>\n

\"NHL<\/p>\n

NHL great Wayne Gretzky makes an appearance at a public event in Washington.Saul Loeb-Pool via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three guys are the three usual guys… Kucherov has been unbelievable in Tampa Bay. How can you not vote for MacKinnon? First place overall, another stellar year,\u201d Gretzky said.<\/p>\n

Gretzky, however, ultimately pointed to McDavid\u2019s impact on the Oilers as the deciding factor in his choice for this season’s Hart Trophy award.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my vote would go to Connor McDavid on the basis of Edmonton has had kind of an up-and-down year all year,\u201d Gretzky said. \u201cThey\u2019ve made a lot of changes; he\u2019s missed Hyman and Draisaitl for a great period of time, but he\u2019s still putting up numbers, and he\u2019s still the best player in the National Hockey League.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I would vote for Connor McDavid if I had a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDavid’s late-season impact seems to be strengthening his MVP case, particularly after the Oilers have dealt with injuries and absences from key forwards Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman.<\/p>\n

MacKinnon, meanwhile, has powered the Avalanche to the best record league-wide and the Presidents’ Trophy, while Kucherov has carried the Lightning offensively throughout the season, with no other Tampa Bay player having more than 88 points.<\/p>\n

No date has been announced for the 2026 NHL Awards ceremony, although last year’s<\/a> was held before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

Related: Maple Leafs’ Craig Berube Addresses His Future in Toronto<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Auston Matthews Addresses Maple Leafs Future After Disappointing Season<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the NHL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL\u2019s Hart Trophy race has remained one of the biggest storylines heading into the final day of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,192,144,5277,155,146,3543,5,370,517,4,1335,540,92,279,1585],"class_list":{"0":"post-554093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-avalanche","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-coloradoavalanche","12":"tag-connor-mcdavid","13":"tag-edmonton-oilers","14":"tag-hart-trophy","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-leon-draisaitl","17":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-nikita-kucherov","20":"tag-tampa-bay","21":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","22":"tag-wayne-gretzky","23":"tag-zach-hyman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116416557596590942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}