In the past 50 years only two goalies have been awarded the Hart Trophy, the NHL’s regular season MVP award.
Dominik Hasek was the first goalie to win the award in the expansion era, earning the trophy in both 1997 and 1998.
Montreal’s Jose Theodore was the other goalie to earn the honors, winning the MVP in 2002.
Carey Price is hoping his dominating 2014-2015 season will earn him the votes he needs to join Hasek and Theodore.
Price’s Montreal Canadiens currently lead the Atlantic Division with two games left in the season and have Gambling.com‘s betting partners favoring them at 9/2 odds to win the Eastern conference title, tied with division rival Tampa Bay.
The Canadiens’ success throughout the season has mostly been attributed to Price’s dominating performance between the pipes.
Price has been the most valuable player on one of the best teams in the league, criteria that would seem to set Price up perfectly to hoist the Hart Trophy come season end.
Unfortunately, his dominating performance and team value do not immediately indicate Price will earn the MVP honors.
Like voters for the MLB MVP rarely voting for pitchers regardless of performance, NHL voters struggle to find enough evidence to vote for a goalie for MVP; as mentioned, it’s only happened three times in 50 years.
Fortunately, Price is doing everything he can to force the voters to get over their inability to consider a goalie and rightfully award him the trophy.
Price is a runaway to secure the Vezina Trophy, NHL’s top goalie, and the William M. Jennings Trophy, awarded to the goalie who allows the least amount of goals against.
Price is now being touted as the favorite to add the Hart Trophy to his list of awards as the season comes to a close and he leads every major goalie category.
Price has produced 9 shutouts this season, tied for first with the Penguin’s Marc-Andre Fleury.
Price’s save percentage is a dominating .935 placing him ahead of the Wild’s Devan Dubnyk who touts a .930 save percentage.
With a 24-save performance against the Panthers in their last game, Price earned his 42nd win of the season placing him first in the category ahead of the Predators’ Pekka Rinne by a game.
The most intriguing stat of Price’s stellar year might be his sub-2.0 Goals Against Average. With two games left, Price is sitting at 1.93 GAA with Devan Dubnyk the only competition at 2.06.
Reports have been recently speculating that Price is a clear favorite among coaches to win the Hart.
His consist performance all year has obviously caught the attention of opposing coaches who have struggled to figure out a way to put the puck past the impenetrable Price.
The Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin is Price’s toughest competition to win the league’s MVP. Ovechkin leads the league in goals by a staggering 10 goals.
He has netted 52 compared to the second placed Steven Stamkos’ and Rick Nash’s 42 goals. Ovechkin is second in the league in points at 80.
Although Ovechkin has certainly had a stellar year, his stats don’t seem nearly as dominating as Price’s and his team value, although high, isn’t as vital as Price’s; the Capitals sit in second place in the Metropolitan Division behind league leading New York Rangers with 99 points compared to Montreal’s 106.
Aside from Price’s outstanding statistics throughout the season, he deserves the MVP because the Canadiens wouldn’t be sitting atop the division without him; they might not even be competing for the playoffs.
Price has done enough to warrant serious consideration for the Hart Trophy but it is up to the normally-skittish voters to consider a goalie for league MVP.
