Taylor Hall Deserves Being New Jersey Devils First Hart Trophy Winner
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils finally have an MVP in their franchise’s history. Taylor Hall took home the Hart Memorial Trophy at the NHL Awards on Wednesday night.
After much speculation, an extremely tight race, and a magical season, Taylor Hall is the Most Valuable Player of the NHL. Hall becomes the first ever player in New Jersey Devils history to win MVP.
The Devils have some of the best players in history that have come through their locker room. Seven of the NHL’s top 100 players spent time in New Jersey, including Martin Brodeur and Scott Stevens, two of the best ever at their position.
Not only was Hall the first ever Hart Trophy winner, he’s the first guy in the top two. Brodeur was in the top three on four different occasions, but never broke past that. Obviously, it can be harder for a goalie to win, but it’s not impossible.
Hall deserves the distinction as the Devils only MVP. So many of those previously great Devils team could lose most players for a night or two and be okay. Even during Brodeur’s best seasons, he had some really good backups like Kevin Weekes, Chris Terreri and Scott Clemmensen. Hall didn’t have the backup plan those previous Devils teams had.
Obviously, the two best offensive Devils seasons prior to this year came from Patrik Elias and Zach Parise. In 2009, Parise scored 45 goals and added 49 assists. In 2001, Elias recorded a Devils recorded 96 points while also putting up a ridiculous 45 +/-. I know that’s a flawed stat, but it’s still telling.
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Even compared to those two seasons, I take what Taylor Hall did over them. His 93 points meant so much more to this team than the previous incarnations. When the Devils needed a goal, the puck went to Hall. The other team knew Hall was going to get the puck, yet he still found a way to score. He did a lot of it all by himself.
This isn’t to take away from the great season of rookie Nico Hischier. He had an amazing season, and he deserved the shout out from Hall’s press conference. However, what else was there? They spent most of the season with Jesper Bratt, who forgot how to score goals halfway through the season. Kyle Palmieri spent a lot of time on the top line, but literally went months without a 5-on-5 goal.
Hall was a monster and deserves this honor. This season will go down as the first Hart Trophy in Devils history, and that’s going to be fun to tell our kids one day.