The Edmonton Oilers' Leon Draisaitl, the Colorado Avalanche's Nathan MacKinnon and Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers were on Tuesday named the 2019-20 finalists for the Hart Trophy, awarded to the NHL player deemed "most valuable to his team" by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
The winner will be announced during either the conference finals or before the Stanley Cup final, which is tentatively scheduled to begin September 22.
The trio are also the finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, which is given to the league's most outstanding player voted for by members of the NHL Players' Association.
The two awards have had different winners in four of the previous 10 seasons, most recently in 2017-18 when the New Jersey Devils' Taylor Hall won the Hart Trophy and Edmonton's Connor McDavid won the Ted Lindsay Award.
The 24-year-old Draisaitl has already secured the Art Ross Trophy as the league's points leader with 110 this season, tallying 43 goals and 67 assists. A first-time finalist for the Hart Trophy, Draisaitl also led the NHL with 44 power-play points, had a league-best 33 multi-point games and is seeking to become the first German-born player to win the award.
MacKinnon finished fifth in the league with 93 points and helped propel the Avalanche to the Western Conference's second-best record, tallying 43 more points than his closest Colorado team-mate. The runner-up to Hall in Hart Trophy voting in 2017-18, the 24-year-old Canadian is also a Lady Byng finalist for sportsmanship.
Panarin set career highs this season with 32 goals and 63 assists, and his 95 points tied the Boston Bruins' David Pastrnak for third in the league. In his first season with the Rangers, the 28-year-old from Russia led the NHL with 71 even-strength points and his plus-36 plus-minus rating ranked first among all forwards. The first-time Hart finalist was the NHL rookie of the year in 2015-16 for the Chicago Blackhawks.
Draisaitl, MacKinnon and Panarin will all be a part of the league's 24-team expanded playoffs that is scheduled to begin on August 1.
