Rangers’ star Artemi Panarin is all “Hart”
Artemi Panarin should win the Hart Trophy. Here’s why.
No player proved more valuable to his team than Artemi Panarin to the New York Rangers in 2019-20.
No player in the NHL transformed his team from playoff observers to contenders as Panarin did.
No player elevated the play of teammates like Panarin did.
No player deserves the Hart Trophy more than Panarin does.
“The Bread Man” clearly matches the NHL’s definition of the Hart as an annual award given “to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team” as chosen by a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association in all NHL cities.
Panarin joined the Rangers last July after signing a seven-year contract for a reported $81.5 million. So far, he’s been worth every cent.
Through 70 games before the NHL paused on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he notched 32 goals and 63 assists for 95 points. His points total was third-most in the NHL (tied with Boston Bruins’ forward David Pastrnak); his assists tally was second-highest (tied with Edmonton Oilers’ standout Connor McDavid).
Yet, more than any other player, Panarin’s been all “Hart.”
He deserves to become the fifth Rangers’ player, and first since Mark Messier in 1992, to win the award.
Here’s why.
Panarin made his teammates better and his team a playoff threat
Panarin accelerated the Rangers’ rebuild, bringing his teammates and the crowds at Madison Square Garden to life with smoothing skating, slick stickhandling, and the best single-season offensive output of his career (now in its fifth year).
The Blueshirts will skate in the NHL’s postseason for the first time in three years. Say what you want about the NHL’s 24-team playoff format, but the Rangers had a good shot at a wild card, trailing by just two points with 12 games to play before the pause.
“The Bread Man” turned the Rangers (37-28-5) into a playoff team, pushing the rebuild at least a season ahead of schedule.
Scoring stats are nice — and Panarin’s are exceptional. But his mere presence gave the Rangers an edge. The kid had 116 goals and 320 points in four seasons before coming to New York. His elite talent meant teams playing the Blueshirts had to worry about the 28-year-old superstar.
Panarin opened up space and time for his linemates. This isn’t a knock on other Rangers, but there’s no question the Russian-born winger made his teammates better.
Perhaps no two players benefited more than Ryan Strome and Jesper Fast, who were Panarin’s linemates for most of the season (39 percent of the time at even strength according to Frozen Tools) and at times on the power play.
Strome posted single-season career highs of 41 assists, 59 points, 17 power-play points, and 14 man-advantage helpers. He also scored 18 goals, one shy of his personal best of 19 in 2018-19 (18 of which came for the Rangers after he was traded by Edmonton for Ryan Spooner).
Strome spent his first six seasons with the Islanders and Edmonton. During his time on Long Island and with the Oilers, he never recorded more than 17 goals or 50 points in a season, Nor did he post more than eight points on the power play in any of those seasons.
What’s more, his adjusted totals for 2019-20 (had the usual 82-game schedule played out) are 21 goals and 48 assists for 69 points.
Meanwhile, Fast was on track to surpass personal bests in goals and points.
The defensive-minded right-winger had 12 goals (including the only two short-handers of his NHL career) and 17 assists for 29 points in 69 games. His adjusted totals of 14 markers and 20 assists for 34 points would have eclipsed previous season highs of 13 tallies and 33 points.
Fast also had 125 hits, four shy of his personal best, and a plus-16 rating. Say what you will about the stat as an accurate indicator of a player’s value, but also consider that in his six previous seasons with the Blueshirts, he finished four of them with a minus rating and was never higher than plus-9.
Other beneficiaries of Panarin’s presence were Pavel Buchnevich and Mika Zibanejad, mostly on the power play and at various points of the seasons.
Zibanejad was limited to 57 games because of injury, but still managed personal season-highs of 41 goals, 75 points, 15 power-play markers, and 27 man-advantage points.
According to hockey-reference.com, he was on pace for 49 goals and 89 points. However, his chances of becoming the franchise’s fourth 50-goal scorer seemed strong given how hot he was in March, scoring 11 times in six games, including five against Washington.
Meanwhile, Buchnevich put up personal-bests in assists (30), points (46), and hits (80). He also recorded his best possession metrics percentages (Corsi 51.2 and Fenwick 52.1).
The power play itself ranked seventh in the NHL at 22.9 percent. Last season, the Rangers’ were No. 17 in the league at 19.4 percent.
Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon scores on Igor Shesterkin. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The challengers
Most hockey pundits seem to agree that Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl, and David Pastrnak will receive more Hart votes than Panarin. Which is a shame because that would reflect an emphasis on stats when those players are already acknowledged by the Rocket Richard and Art Ross awards.
The Hart is intended to honor the player most valuable to his team.
Going strictly by stats, Panarin doesn’t have the numbers of his Hart competitors (league rank in parenthesis).
Goals
David Pastrnak, Boston, 48 (tied-first with Washington’s Alex Ovechkin)
Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton, 43 (fourth)
Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado, 35 (ninth)
Panarin, Rangers, 32 (tied-13th with Vegas’ Max Pacioretty)
Assists
Draisaitl, 67 (led NHL)
Panarin, 63 (tied-second with Edmonton’s Connor McDavid)
MacKinnon, 58 (sixth)
Pastrnak, 47 (15th)
Points
Draisaitl, 110 (led NHL)
Panarin, 95 (tied-third)
Pastrnak, 95 (tied-third)
MacKinnon, 93 (fifth)
mes
Draisaitl, 71
Pastrnak, 70
MacKinnon, 69
Panarin, 69
Analysis
Draisaitl is a wonderful player. However, it certainly helps to have a superstar like Connor McDavid on your team.
As you know, McDavid was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 Entry Draft.
The dynamic center already has three 100-point seasons, a Hart Trophy, two Art Ross awards, and 162 goals in 351 career games. In 64 games this season, McDavid finished second in the NHL in points (97) and assists (63), and tenth in goals (34).
Not to diminish Draisaitl’s awesome season but it’s fair to wonder whether he’d have put up the same numbers without McDavid’s presence. It’s also reasonable to note that Draisaitl was no more valuable to the playoff-bound Oilers than McDavid proved.
Pastrnak is a gifted scorer any team should be happy to accommodate. But come on, he plays with two of the game’s best forwards in Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, and on a team that won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2019-20.
Aside from the occasional slew foot and slurp of an opponent’s face, Marchand is an excellent skater and stick-handler who can score as well as he sets up teammates. He’s one of the best at leaving defenders in the dust with lightning-quick moves.
Bergeron is an absolute warrior and one of the best defensive forwards in the game’s history.
The four-time Selke Trophy winner (as the NHL’s best defensive forward) reportedly played through a broken rib, punctured lung, and torn cartilage during the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals. He also played through a groin injury in last year’s Finals.
To have either Marchand or Bergeron as a linemate would make most players happy. Pastrnak enjoys the luxury of playing with both.
In addition, Pastrnak also has internal competition from goalie Tuukka Rask, who finished last season with an NHL-best 2.12 goals-against average, as well as the league’s second-highest save percentage (.929) and five shutouts.
MacKinnon is probably closest to Panarin in terms of supporting cast.
The center led the Avalanche to a 40-22-8 record with a plethora of solid teammates but no superstars — and no Nazem Kadri for the final month of last season. (The talented center had 19 goals and 36 points in 51 games before suffering a lower-body injury that ended his season on Feb. 11.)
The Avalanche player with the next-highest point total was a rookie defenseman — Calder Trophy favorite Cale Makar (50 points).
Nonetheless, MacKinnon endorsed Panarin for the Hart earlier this week.
Rangers forward Artemi Panarin deserves to win the Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player, Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon told TSN 1050 in Toronto. https://t.co/ijT0wE7H4u
— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) June 10, 2020
You make the call
Who deserves the Hart Trophy for 2019-20 and why?
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