McDavid, Fleury pull down NHL MVP, Vezina honors
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid ran away in the voting to win his second Hart Trophy as NHL MVP on Tuesday, much like he blew away the competition while leading the league in points.
McDavid became just the second unanimous Hart selection — joining Wayne Gretzky in 1982 — in receiving all 100 first-place votes from members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
The NHL presented its awards remotely for a second consecutive season because of the coronavirus pandemic. In previous years, the awards ceremony was held in Las Vegas with an audience and players present.
McDavid doubled up on honors by also winning his third Ted Lindsay Award as the league’s most outstanding player, which is voted on by NHL players.
The 24-year-old McDavid, who also won MVP honors in 2017, had already won his third Art Ross Trophy in six seasons for leading the NHL with 105 points (33 goals, 72 assists) in 56 games. The next closest player to McDavid in the points standings was teammate Leon Draisaitl with 84,
Toronto’s Auston Matthews finished second in the voting followed by Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.
Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury beat out Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and Colorado’s Philipp Grubauer to win his first Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s goalie of the year. The Golden Knights tandem of Fleury and Robin Lehner already won the William M. Jennings Trophy, for combining to allow an NHL-low 124 goals this season.
The 36-year-old Fleury finished third in the NHL with 26 wins, a 1.98 goals-against, .928 save percentage and six shutouts in 36 games. He also closed the season with a nine-game winning streak, while moving into third place on the NHL career list with 492 wins.
