The National Hockey League will hold its annual year-end awards ceremony this year on June 24 in Las Vegas. The league will celebrates its top players in both on-ice and off-ice performances, rewarding representatives from the top scorers to the best goaltenders and everything in between. As the NHL continues to announce its nominees for the yearly awards, we’ll take a look back at the history of each award and when – if ever – a member of the Buffalo Sabres franchise has won it.
Some of these awards have been given out for 90 years, while others are newer. Regardless, it’s a true honor for any player to receive these awards.
Today, we’ll look at the NHL’s Hart Memorial Trophy.
The Hart Memorial Trophy is annual presented to the player judged to be “the most valuable to his team,” as selected via poll of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association members at the end of the regular season.
Puck Prose
The trophy was originally donated to the league in 1923 by Dr. David A. Hart, father of a former manager-coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Cecil Hart. The original trophy was retired to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a new one has been presented since 1960.
The Hart Trophy has been presented since 1924.
The team with the most Hart trophies is: the Montreal Canadiens, who have had a representative win the award 16 times in league history. But the player who has been most often historically the representative of the Hart: Wayne Gretzky, of course.
Gretzky won the Hart nine times during his NHL career, including eight consecutive times from 1980 until 1987.
Twice in history, a member of the Buffalo Sabres organization has been the winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy.
Both times – can you guess? – it was Dominik Hasek.
Hasek won the Hart Trophy in consecutive years, after both the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons.
Those were incredible seasons for Hasek. He also won the Lester B. Pearson Award both of those seasons, as well as the Vezina Trophy both of those seasons. In addition, he was named to the NHL First All-Star Team and played in the NHL All-Star Game both years.
Not only did Hasek win the Hart twice; he was also nominated three additional times during his stint with the Buffalo Sabres (1994, 1995 and 1999).
This year’s nominees: Alexander Ovechkin, Carey Price and John Tavares. Ovechkin has previously won it three times, while both Price and Tavares would be first-time winners. Who do you think it will be?
Next: Buffalo Sabres Selke Winners
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