LAS VEGAS — At one point during the 2023-24 season, Mikko Rantanen said Nathan MacKinnon deserved to be on the “Mount Rushmore” in Colorado Avalanche franchise history.
That was chiseled in granite Thursday night.
MacKinnon won the Hart Memorial Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award at the 2024 NHL Awards Show, collecting both NHL most valuable player honors for the first time in his career. He joins franchise legends Joe Sakic (2001) and Peter Forsberg (2003) as Avs players who have claimed league MVP honors.
“It’s really cool. I honestly never thought I’d win these,” MacKinnon said. “Every player I grew up idolizing has their name on these things. To be a part of that company, it’s surreal. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s definitely a special thing.
“I know it’s an individual award, but you do feel like you’re connected to these all-time greats.”
Avs defenseman Cale Makar was also a finalist for the James Norris Trophy for the fourth consecutive season. The 2022 winner, Makar finished third in the voting. Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes won for the first time, and Nashville’s Roman Josi finished second.
MacKinnon was also named to the NHL First All-Star Team for the first time in his career. He had previously been named to the second team twice. Makar earned NHL Second All-Star Team honors. He’s made the first team twice and second team twice in his five-year career.
A runner-up for the Hart Trophy twice before, MacKinnon finished this past season with a career-high 51 goals and a franchise-record 140 points. He led the NHL in shots on goal (405) and even-strength points (92).
“It probably has a lot to do with me winning (the Hart) is just kind of letting go of things and outcomes and different accolades,” MacKinnon said. “It’s definitely part of it, just letting go of (worrying about) all that stuff.”
MacKinnon said he received phone calls from his childhood hero turned close friend Sidney Crosby and from Wayne Gretzky shortly after winning the awards.
MacKinnon had at least one point in 35 straight home games to start the season, the second-longest such streak in NHL history. He became the first player in league history to have multiple 19-game point streaks, regardless of venue, in one season.
“I was doing the weirdest things before games,” MacKinnon said of his superstitious nature during the home-point streak. “My car was dirty the whole year. I wouldn’t clean it, inside and out. Just dumb things that I would wear. Honestly, when it was over, I was kind of happy.”
This was arguably the best field of MVP candidates the NHL has seen to date, but the Hart voting wasn’t that close in the end. MacKinnon garnered 137 of the 194 first-place votes, 87 more than Nikita Kucherov, who finished second. MacKinnon had 47 second-place votes, eight third-place votes and one voter placed him fifth. One of the voters did not have him on their ballot.
Kucherov led the league with 144 points. He and MacKinnon became the second and third players to reach 140 points since 1996, joining Connor McDavid from 2022-23.
McDavid and Kucherov both reached 100 assists, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr as the only players in league history to reach that milestone. And all Auston Matthews did was score 69 goals, the most by anyone since 1996, while also finishing third in the Selke Trophy voting for the league’s top defensive forward. He wasn’t even a finalist for the Hart, finishing fourth with a resume that could have easily won in a lot of years.
MacKinnon now has a Calder Memorial Trophy, Lady Byng Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay on his resume, along with the Stanley Cup ring from 2022. He’s one of five active players to have won the Calder as top rookie and MVP, joining Matthews, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Patrick Kane. The Hart is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The Lindsay award is selected by the NHL Players Association.
There were numerous incredible performances along the way this season for MacKinnon. He had the first four-goal game since the franchise moved to Colorado, then added the second 34 days later. He had the first Avalanche natural hat trick since Sakic had one in 2003.
He also had several signature games or moments on the road in some of the NHL’s biggest markets, including a game-winning goal to help erase a three-goal lead in Toronto, a highlight-reel goal in New York, a four-point game in Philadelphia and a game-winning assist with one second left in Edmonton in arguably the best regular-season game of the NHL season.
Along the way, he helped keep the Avalanche among the best teams in the NHL and on the short list of Stanley Cup contenders. And he has further etched his name into hockey lore because of it.
“I just love the day-to-day grind of the NHL and I think that’s why I’m sitting here right now,” MacKinnon said. “I do love to work and I love the process of things.”
Hart Trophy voting results
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| Player, team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado | 137 | 47 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1740 |
| Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay | 50 | 77 | 30 | 23 | 11 | 1269 |
| Connor McDavid, Edmonton | 1 | 28 | 86 | 67 | 8 | 845 |
| Auston Matthews, Toronto | 2 | 33 | 53 | 73 | 21 | 756 |
| Artemi Panarin, N.Y. Rangers | 3 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 58 | 175 |
| Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg | 1 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 30 | 104 |
| Quinn Hughes, Vancouver | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 26 | 62 |
| David Pastrnak, Boston | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 41 |
| Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 38 |
| Roman Josi, Nashville | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| J.T. Miller, Vancouver | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Sebastian Aho, Carolina | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Charlie Lindgren, Washington | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Sam Reinhart, Florida | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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Originally Published: June 27, 2024 at 5:14 p.m.
