Hart Memorial Trophy
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The Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the Most Valuable Player in the National Hockey League. The voting is conducted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association to judge the player who is the most valuable to his team during the regular season.
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[edit] History
The Hart Memorial Trophy is named in honour of Dr. David Hart. Dr. Hart, who donated the original trophy to the NHL, was the father of Cecil Hart, a former Coach and General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens hockey club. The Hart Trophy was first awarded at the conclusion of the 1923-24 NHL season. The winner of the first Hart Trophy was Frank Nighbor of the Ottawa Senators. When the original "Hart Trophy" was retired in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1960, the NHL began presenting the Hart Memorial Trophy in its place.
With the exceptions being Tommy Anderson and Al Rollins, every player who won the Hart Trophy before 1990 has been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Mark Messier and Brett Hull are retired but have not yet met eligibility requirements. Sergei Fedorov, Eric Lindros, Dominik Hasek, Chris Pronger, Joe Sakic, Jaromir Jagr, José Théodore, Peter Forsberg, Martin St. Louis and Joe Thornton have all won the Hart, but are still active players.
Wayne Gretzky won the award a record nine times during his career, 8 consecutively. He has been named MVP more times than any other player in the history of the other 3 Major Professional Leagues (MLB, NBA, and NFL). Barry Bonds is second, having won the MVP award seven times in Major League Baseball.
Dominik Hasek is the first and only goalie in NHL history that won the Hart twice (in 1997 and 1998), also for a goalie winning it in consecutive years. Roy "Shrimp" Worters was the first goalie to win the award.
As for team representation, Montreal Canadiens have won the award 16 times; Boston Bruins are 2nd with 12 winners, and the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers have seen players win the award 9 times.
Joe Thornton became the first Hart Trophy winner to switch clubs during his winning campaign in 2005-06 NHL season, having played for both the Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks that year.
The Hart voting has recently come quite close. In 2000, Pronger overtook Jagr by a single point in the voting. That was, at the time, closest the NHL MVP award has come. However, two years later, Théodore and Jarome Iginla tied in the total voting. Since the Hart Trophy winner is chosen on the basis of first-place votes, Théodore (86 first-place votes to Iginla's 82) claimed it.
