Nathan MacKinnon Wins Both Hart Trophy And Ted Lindsay Award

Colorado Avalanche fans knew it all along, but on Thursday night it became official – Nathan MacKinnon is your Hart Trophy winner for the 2023/24 NHL season. That’s not the only award the star took home on the evening, as he was named the Ted Lindsay Award winner, given to the most outstanding player in the regular season as judged by members of the NHLPA.

The Ted Lindsay Award might mean more to MacKinnon, seeing as how it was given to him by peers, but the Hart Trophy is a big one.

Coming off the best season of his career and the best season in franchise history, MacKinnon was awarded the trophy, which is given to the most valuable player in the league. The Hart is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The 28 year old center scored 51 goals and added 89 assists, giving him 140 points on the year. That broke the previous franchise record for points in a season, which was held by Peter Stastny, who put up 139 points back during the 1981-82 season.

Always humble, after winning the Ted Lindsay Award, the first person MacKinnon gave a shout-out to was Andrew Cogliano, who recently retired after a 17 year career.

Back in January after another big performance, I asked MacKinnon about the “MVP!” chants that fans at Ball Arena were showering him with night after night.

“I mean, I’ve heard them before and I’ve never won MVP, so it doesn’t mean much,” he said with a laugh. “But obviously the fans are very supportive. I’m not getting my hopes up.”

I’m not sure if he got his hopes up, but it was fairly obvious this was coming. MacKinnon was the betting favorite for the Hart heading into Thursday night, as DraftKings had him at -475. Nikita Kucherov was the next closest, but even his odds were +450.

MacKinnon is not the first member of the Avalanche to win both awards in the same season, as Joe Sakic did the same thing back in 2001. Peter Forsberg is the only other Avalanche player to take home the Hart Trophy, as he won it in 2003.

Cale Makar was up for the Norris Trophy for the fourth time in five seasons, but Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks took home the award. Makar finished in third place behind Hughes and Roman Josi.

Don’t expect the Avalanche superstar to ease up after winning the award. He recently stated how disappointed he was with how the season ended.

“I felt like we were good enough to win, and we didn’t,” he said. “It just leaves a really bitter taste in your mouth.”

I’ll have a lot more on MacKinnon live from Las Vegas coming soon. He is expected to meet with the media after the awards show to discuss taking home the award.