FanNation

A while back, I did a blog on who I thought had the upper hand in winning the NHL awards this season and, yeah..., got some players wrong! But the more I started thinking about the actual players up for certain awards, the more it hit me..., maybe winning the biggest trophy outside of Lord Stanley's Cup isn't really worth it? Let me explain..., I went back about 15 years in the history of who won this trophy and, I found something kind of weird. In 1993-94, a young Russian goal scorer by the name of Sergei Federov won this award for the Red Wings. Since then, he's been bounced from Detroit to Columbus to Washington..., hasn't played in another Finals to my recollection or even been nominated for another award. He's lost his scoring touch in the process and I believe Detroit tried to make him a defenseman! A year later, another talented young player by the name of Eric Lindros won this award while playing for the Philadelphia Flyers..., a few years later, he was traded to New York, signed with the Leafs, then the Stars and ended his 'illustrious' career to work for the NHLPA. In 1996, Mario won his last Hart Trophy before calling it a career..., then returning, then retiring again. 1997 welcomed the name of Dominik Hasek for the first of his two Harts..., he's now a 41 year old back up for the Wings, having played for the Sens between stints. Jagr won his last Hart before the wheels fell off his game, after that Pronger and Sakic traded the award and had decent years after. But then Jose Theodore won his Hart and apparently imploded after that..., he never was the same player after 2001-02 was he? St. Louis won the award before the lockout and he's not the same, Thornton's still a dominant big guy in San Jose but that's during the regular season. And Crosby won it last year..., he missed 30 games with injury and could've seriously lowered Pittsburgh's Cup chances at the same time (if it wasn't for Malkin, who's up for it this year.)

 Point is..., anyone in the past fifteen years or so that has won this award, has either been injured, had huge expectations thrown at them or just didn't care about what the league thought after winning it. I just pray that if Ovechkin, Malkin or Iginla wins this award this year, they won't have the same downside as the others before them.