{"id":263666,"date":"2026-05-08T16:58:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263666\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:58:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:58:31","slug":"nikita-kucherov-voted-hart-memorial-trophy-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263666\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikita Kucherov voted Hart Memorial Trophy Finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (May 8, 2026)\u00a0\u2013 Tampa Bay\u00a0Lightning\u00a0right wing\u00a0Nikita Kucherov, Colorado\u00a0Avalanche\u00a0center\u00a0Nathan MacKinnon\u00a0and Edmonton\u00a0Oilers\u00a0center\u00a0Connor McDavid\u00a0\u2013 the same trio as in 2023-24 \u2013 are the three finalists for the 2025-26\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/email.pr-email.nhl.com\/c\/eJw0zUGOhCAQheHTwE5TVoHogkVvXM0lSqw0TBANkp707Sdt0rs_-ZL3Nj9tQ6BRix-cm9COgJOOfrDzPMtGROggYDBhMJbMakayBOuqk0fAESxMwwiA1ItzYZ0szI7YoZAycNZOdk65LzH34dh19rG181L0ULgoXKqEo27X1xUu_Md1uxQurR5nTPLJyLV1u-xHTZy7G966-t_8LkUZ4J1zEq5S-D5p_ic9YyupPHXzj3vwEy_OXEIU_fL4HwAA__8Pa002\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"http:\/\/email.pr-email.nhl.com\/c\/eJw0zUGOhCAQheHTwE5TVoHogkVvXM0lSqw0TBANkp707Sdt0rs_-ZL3Nj9tQ6BRix-cm9COgJOOfrDzPMtGROggYDBhMJbMakayBOuqk0fAESxMwwiA1ItzYZ0szI7YoZAycNZOdk65LzH34dh19rG181L0ULgoXKqEo27X1xUu_Md1uxQurR5nTPLJyLV1u-xHTZy7G966-t_8LkUZ4J1zEq5S-D5p_ic9YyupPHXzj3vwEy_OXEIU_fL4HwAA__8Pa002\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hart Memorial Trophy<\/a>, awarded \u201cto the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team,\u201d the National Hockey League announced today.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association submitted ballots for the Hart Trophy at the conclusion of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists.<\/p>\n<p>Nikita Kucherov, RW, Tampa Bay\u00a0Lightning<\/p>\n<p>Kucherov finished second in the NHL with 44-86\u2014130 in 76 games \u2013 42 points more than his closest teammate (Jake Guentzel: 38-50\u201488 in 81 GP) \u2013 to power the\u00a0Lightning\u00a0to their ninth straight playoff berth. Kucherov\u2019s 42-point edge was the second-largest gap between a team\u2019s top two scorers in 2025-26, trailing just the 56-point difference between\u00a0Macklin Celebrini\u00a0(45-70\u2014115 in 82 GP) and\u00a0Will Smith\u00a0(24-35\u201459 in 69 GP) of the San Jose Sharks. Kucherov, who found the scoresheet in 60 of his 76 appearances (78.9%), additionally ranked among the League leaders in points per game (1st; 1.71), even-strength assists (1st; 57), multi-assist performances (t-1st; 25), assists (2nd; 86), even-strength points (2nd; 92), multi-point performances (2nd; 40), plus\/minus (t-3rd; +43), even-strength goals (4th; 35), power-play assists (4th; 29), multi-goal performances (t-4th; 8), power-play points (6th; 37), game-winning goals (t-7th; 8) and goals (8th; 44). Kucherov, who totaled 44-100\u2014144 in 2023-24 (81 GP), became the 10th player in League history to produce multiple 130-point seasons. He also became the 17th-fastest player in NHL history to reach both the 1,000-point (809 GP on Oct. 25 vs. ANA) and 1,100-point (863 GP on March 12 vs. DET) milestones. The 32-year-old Kucherov, a finalist for the third straight season (3rd in 2024-25 and 2nd in 2023-24) after claiming the award in 2018-19, is seeking to become the third player in NHL history to go seven-plus years between Hart Trophy wins, after\u00a0Jean Beliveau\u00a0(8\u00a0years, 1955-56 and 1963-64) and\u00a0Sidney Crosby\u00a0(7 years, 2006-07 and 2013-14).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (May 8, 2026)\u00a0\u2013 Tampa Bay\u00a0Lightning\u00a0right wing\u00a0Nikita Kucherov, Colorado\u00a0Avalanche\u00a0center\u00a0Nathan MacKinnon\u00a0and Edmonton\u00a0Oilers\u00a0center\u00a0Connor McDavid\u00a0\u2013 the same trio as in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-263666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}