- Macklin Celebrini, Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid are the finalists for the 2025-26 Ted Lindsay Award
- McDavid has won the award four times and could join Wayne Gretzky as a five-time winner
- Read below for how the NHL’s peers voted on the league’s most outstanding player
Connor McDavid led the NHL in scoring again. His peers noticed.
The NHLPA announced Tuesday that Macklin Celebrini, Nikita Kucherov and McDavid are the three finalists for the 2025-26 Ted Lindsay Award, given to the league’s most outstanding player as voted by fellow players.
McDavid’s case practically writes itself. He led the league with 138 points (48 goals, 90 assists) in 82 games and is a four-time winner already. A fifth would put him alongside Wayne Gretzky — literally the only other player to win this thing five times. This is his seventh time as a finalist.
Kucherov was right behind him. The reigning Ted Lindsay winner finished second in the league with 130 points (44 goals, 86 assists) in 76 games, leading all players with a 1.71 points-per-game average. The Lightning star is a finalist for the third consecutive year and the fourth time overall. At 32, he’s still producing at a pace that makes the rest of the league shake its head.
Then there’s Celebrini, who at 19 years old crashed a party usually reserved for established superstars. The Sharks center set a franchise record with 115 points (45 goals, 70 assists) in 82 games, finishing fourth in league scoring in just his second season. He’d be the first San Jose player to ever win the award.
The Ted Lindsay is unique among NHL awards because the players themselves pick the winner — no media vote, no league committee. When the guys you compete against every night say you’re the most outstanding, it carries a different kind of weight.
The winner will be announced at a later date as part of the 2026 NHL Awards.
