- McDavid leads the NHL with 138 points, chasing a 5th Ted Lindsay to tie Gretzky
- Kucherov goes for back-to-back wins after his 130-point season in Tampa Bay
- Read below for the full breakdown and video on each finalist
The NHLPA played it straight with its three Ted Lindsay Award finalists Tuesday.
Connor McDavid, Macklin Celebrini, and Nikita Kucherov are up for the award, which goes annually to the NHL’s most outstanding player as voted by fellow members of the players’ association. The winner gets revealed at a later date.
McDavid led the league with 138 points (48 goals, 90 assists) in 82 games. This is his seventh time as a finalist. He’s already taken the award four times. A fifth would tie him with Wayne Gretzky for the most ever.
His 6th Art Ross last week put him in the same conversation as Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux, so a Ted Lindsay would just be another line on the resume.
The video below covers McDavid’s best stretches from this season:
Kucherov went 44-86-130 for Tampa Bay and led the league in points-per-game at 1.71. He’s the reigning winner and is up for the trophy a third straight year, fourth time overall.
Then there’s Celebrini.
The 19-year-old finished his sophomore season with 115 points, fourth in the NHL, and broke Joe Thornton’s franchise record. Only one teenager has ever won this award. Sidney Crosby did it in 2006-07. Celebrini would be the second, and he’d be the first Sharks player ever to lift it.
Here’s video of Celebrini’s record-setting year:
He had a point in 60 of San Jose’s 82 games and helped the Sharks jump from 52 to 86 standings points. The franchise’s player-of-the-year vote was already his, and now this.
The rest of the awards trickle out over the next two weeks. Vezina finalists drop Wednesday. Hart Trophy lands May 8.
