Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov wins Hart Trophy
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy, both of the Tampa Bay Lightning, have won top honors at the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas.
The biggest names in hockey were at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on Wednesday, where the NHL handed out its regular-season trophies at the star-studded event.
Kucherov won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player. The Russian right wing won the award for the first time after his prolific 128-point regular season. He beat out two-time MVP Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh and 2017 Hart winner Connor McDavid.
Kucherov, who turned 26 on Monday, also won the Ted Lindsay Award as the league's outstanding player as selected by his fellow players. A year after scoring 100 points, Kucherov emerged as a dominant NHL forward for the powerhouse Lightning. He won the Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in scoring with a career-best 41 goals and 87 assists.
Kucherov tied Jaromir Jagr's NHL record for assists by a wing, and he surpassed Alexander Mogilny's single-season record for points by a Russian-born player. His 128 points were the most by any NHL player since 1996 -- and the Lightning coincidentally also had 128 points in the standings, also the most by any team since 1996.
Vasilevskiy was awarded his first Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goalie. He beat out Dallas' Ben Bishop and the New York Islanders' Robin Lehner, who won the Masterton Trophy earlier in the NHL Awards show.
Vasilevskiy led the NHL with 39 victories for the powerhouse Lightning, who took the Presidents' Trophy with 128 points. The Russian goalie had a 2.40 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage in 53 games. He is the first Lightning goalie to win the Vezina. His Russian teammate in Tampa Bay, Nikita Kucherov, already won the Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL's most outstanding player in voting by his fellow players.
The event was hosted by Kenan Thompson and featured presenters ranging from Canadian game show host Alex Trebek to St. Louis Blues superfan Jon Hamm.