It’s that time of year again to check in with our original NHL Saturday miniseries: the awards analysis. In an odd coincidence, three of the vote winners below have the same first name, but we’re guessing that they won’t all keep their hardware in our estimation. That being said, this is always a fun exercise for the only “pure” professional sport left among the four major ones in North America, so enjoy today’s read aplenty!

2024 Hart: Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado (original); Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay (revised)

Three forwards cleared the 15 Point Shares threshold during the season: Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (16.0), Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Nikita Kucherov (15.5), and Toronto Maple Leafs C Auston Matthews (15.1). MacKinnon won the vote, but we give our nod to Kucherov, as the Lightning were closer to not making the playoffs than either the Avs or the Leafs, thus creating value.

Tampa Bay reached the postseason by a mere 7 points in the standings, while Colorado had a 15-point cushion and Toronto had an 11-point margin for error. The PS totals are close enough to make a direct comparison almost moot, and without Kucherov, perhaps the Lightning do not qualify for the Stanley Cup chase at all. Kucherov posted 100 assists and 144 points, both of which topped the NHL. That’s impressive.

MacKinnon won our nod in 2018, while Kucherov won the vote (and our assent) in 2019. Interestingly enough, Matthews won both the vote and our analysis in 2022, as well. All of these guys had great seasons, of course, so maybe this is the proverbial splitting of hairs. But it’s just the way we see the cookie crumbling.

2024 Norris: Quinn Hughes, Vancouver (original); Evan Bouchard, Edmonton (revised)

Only two defensemen made the league’s Top 10 for Point Shares: Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks (14.4) and Evan Bouchard of the Edmonton Oilers (13.1). Hughes won the vote; the Canucks finished with a 17-point clearance in the standings for the postseason. The Oilers came in 5 points behind them, which has us leaning toward Bouchard. But which blueliner posted the better defensive PS mark? Hughes by a little.

So, we can see Hughes was the “better” defenseman, yet Bouchard may have been more valuable to his team. Again, maybe we’re trying to dissect the impossible, but Hughes’ PS marks aren’t significantly better than Bouchard’s numbers, enough, to overcome that gap in the standings. So, while we don’t feel extremely firm about this, we want to be consistent: we give this Norris to Bouchard instead of Hughes.

2024 Vezina: Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg (original); Ilya Sorokin, New York Islanders (revised)

Nine goaltenders posted double-digit PS marks as offense started asserting itself again in the NHL, but of the nine, only one guy cleared 12.0 PS: Winnipeg Jets star Connor Hellebuyck (13.6). Meanwhile, St. Louis Blues veteran Jordan Binnington (11.9); New York Islanders stalwart Ilya Sorokin (11.4); and Nashville Predators netminder Juuse Saros (11.1) were the next-best trio. Hellebuyck won the vote; was it correct?

Well, the Blues came up short of the playoffs by 6 points in the Western Conference, while the Preds finished 7 points ahead of St. Louis in the standings. So Saros—who we gave back-to-back Vezinas to in 2021 and 2022—moves ahead in our analysis. The Isles had a mere 3-point margin for error in the Eastern Conference, so Sorokin edges out Saros now. And Hellebuyck? Well, the Jets were 18 points up on St. Louis.

Thus, we see Sorokin as our winner here, despite Hellebuyck’s PS edge. We gave the Jets creasemaster our Vezina nod last year, and he also won the vote in 2020, confirmed by us. So, we are sure he will understand.

2024 Calder: Connor Bedard, Chicago (original); Pyotr Kochetkov, Carolina (revised)

Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard, who was the hyped No. 1 pick in the draft, won the Calder vote despite finishing just sixth in rookie Point Shares. He finished with a minus-44 rating, too, for a team that posted just 52 points in the standings—7 points worse than Chicago did the year before without him. We find this to be a terribly problematic vote, and there’s no fucking way in hell we’re confirming this one.

Five rookies posted at least 5.0 PS, and Bedard was not one of them. So, our choices become easier: only one of the five played on a postseason participant. That would be Carolina Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov (6.7 PS). He’s our pick here for posting a 23-13-4 record with a 2.33 GAA and a .911 save percentage. He also posted 4 shutouts in his 42 appearances, which is a pretty nice rate of extreme success there.

2024 Conn Smythe: Connor McDavid, Edmonton (original, confirmed)

The Florida Panthers topped the Oilers in a thrilling, seven-game series that went down to the final seconds in the end. Edmonton C Connor McDavid won the Conn Smythe vote, despite playing for the losing team. He is certainly one of the league brightest stars with a collection of trophies on his shelf, so we have to decide if this was a sentimental vote or one actually backed up by rational data. Let us begin with victors.

The top Panthers candidates here are … singular: G Sergei Bobrovsky (16-8, 2.32 GAA), as no Florida skater put up at least a point a game in the playoffs. Bobrovsky has won 2 Vezinas from us in the past, but he wasn’t overtly dominant in this postseason, in truth: the .906 S% is relatively pedestrian, even in a high-scoring era. So we’re not sold on any of the Florida candidates, in truth. Plus, the Oilers outscored them.

Meanwhile, McDavid posted a whopping 42 points in 25 playoff games, including 34 assists. Admittedly, three different Oilers managed at least a point per game in the postseason, including Bouchard (26 assists, 32 points). There’s a lot to like about Edmonton’s overall offensive attack, but McDavid is the guy who makes it all work down low with his passing, spacing, and versatility. We will confirm this vote now, readily.