After a muted offseason within the NHL, the beginning of the 2025-26 season is now simply six days away.
Among the league’s finest gamers might be combating for wins within the Central Division. And a few of those self same gamers may even be competing for the Hart Trophy.
Connor Hellebuyck, who gained the Hart Trophy final season, is the second-straight participant from the Central to win the award.
One of many following 5 gamers could make it three in a row. Listed below are the 5 gamers with the shortest odds to win the MVP trophy as of October 1.
Finest Gamers within the Central Division: Who Are the Hart Candidates?
Nathan MacKinnon, C, Avalanche (+475)
Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon might be vying for his second Hart Trophy this yr after profitable the award for the 2023-24 season.
MacKinnon’s Hart-winning marketing campaign in 2024 was fueled by a mind-boggling 140-point outing, 51 targets, and 89 assists.
Final season, MacKinnon fell about 20 targets wanting that mark from the yr prior, ending with 32 targets and a league-leading 84 assists in 79 video games performed. He ended up ending fourth within the Hart voting for 2024-25, incomes 27 first-place votes.
MacKinnon seems like he’ll be solidly within the combine for the Hart Trophy as he has over the previous few years. He simply retains chugging alongside every year, handing over top-five Hart end seasons and protecting everybody joyful.
What may transfer him up into a better stratosphere, from a robust contender to a favourite, is a change within the Avalanche’s standing as a contender.
Coloradans seemingly haven’t come down but from their Rocky Mountain Excessive from once they gained the Stanley Cup in 2022 — please clap in entrance of your telephone or laptop computer in the event you favored that joke. The staff has considerably underachieved within the years since that victory, however you haven’t heard a lot complaining from media or Avalanche followers.
Even in the event you nonetheless view the Oilers as the favourite within the Western Convention — regardless of them feeling weaker this season after a second-straight Stanley Cup Finals loss — the spot of second-best within the West is huge open.
MacKinnon main his staff to a different Division title, over the also-contending Dallas, and a primary total seed could lead on him to turn into a Hart Trophy favourite.
There’s already a precedent with Hellebuyck final season, who was within the combine for the Hart Trophy all yr however grew to become the favourite as soon as it was clear that Winnipeg can be the top-seed.
Kirill Kaprizov, LW, Wild (+800)
The entrance workplace in Minnesota is certain hoping that Kirill Kaprizov has a Hart Trophy-worthy season after handing him the biggest contract in league historical past this week.
Kaprizov signed an eight-year $136 million extension with the Wild on September 30, ending a contract dispute that regarded like it could turn into a holdout because the season neared.
Now, Kaprizov doesn’t simply have a contract, he has one richer than any participant in NHL historical past. I don’t know if anybody may have predicted that Kaprizov, who was sort of an underrated man throughout final season, would have been the participant to surpass Leon Draisaitl’s record-setting extension that was inked simply final yr.
This might be a serious prove-it yr for the 28-year-old who completed 18th in Hart voting final season after receiving simply three votes for fifth place. He had 25 targets and 31 assists in 41 video games performed.
His highest-ever Hart vote end was in 2021-22, his second season, when he completed in seventh place.
Do these numbers scream highest-paid participant to you?
Minnesota has given Kaprizov numerous decimal locations to stay as much as with that contract, and that may begin this season.
Exterior of getting a breakout yr or a major shakeup within the win column for the Wild, I don’t see him residing as much as the quantity or profitable the Hart Trophy.
Connor Hellebuyck, G, Jets (+3000)
I gave Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck numerous grief earlier than, throughout, and after his Hart Trophy win final season.
I don’t know what it’s, I simply discover it laborious to purchase into the thought of that man being essentially the most precious participant within the league. Possibly it’s my aversion to gamers who don’t present up within the playoffs in any respect, however the Hart Trophy is a regular-season award, so possibly it’s value it to put off of him.
Together with profitable the Hart Trophy final yr, Hellebuyck grew to become a three-time winner of the Vezina Trophy as nicely.
Enjoying in a league-leading 63 video games, he had a league and profession finest 2.00 GAA and a .925 save share.
These sorts of numbers are undoubtedly repeatable for Hellebuyck, headed into this 2025-26 season. The two.00 GAA might be laborious to repeat, however I anticipate him to stay persistently elite this season.
Like I stated beforehand, what actually pushed Hellebuyck over the hump was the Presidents’ Trophy win for Winnipeg. He’s had elite numbers for years, however the Jets hadn’t reached these heights but in his profession.
He faces a tricky battle to turn into a repeat Hart Trophy winner. There isn’t a lot he can actually enhance on from final yr, and out of doors of merely repeating what he already achieved in 2025, I don’t know if the PWHA voters would reward him.
Cale Makar, D, Avalanche (+3500)
One other Colorado participant who may make himself a Hart Trophy contender this season is defenseman Cale Makar.
Makar has already gained virtually each different award a defenseman can win in his comparatively quick NHL profession. He’s a two-time Norris Trophy winner, a Conn Smythe Trophy winner, a Calder Trophy winner, and a Stanley Cup winner. Moreover, he gained faculty hockey’s MVP award, the Hobey Baker Award, in 2019.
The one actual mountain left to climb for Makar is the Hart Trophy.
His highest ever end for the award got here simply final season when he completed sixth. This previous season Makar had 30 targets and 62 assists. He additionally had a +28 plus/minus.
With the instruments Makar has and his stature within the league, a Hart Trophy is sure to occur in some unspecified time in the future for him.
He could have to attend for MacKinnon to move him the baton so far as primary scoring choice.
However with continued excellence on the offensive and defensive ends of the sport, that rivalry for the Hart Trophy may begin this season.
Mikko Rantanen, RW, Stars (+6600)
After being traded twice in a single season, Dallas’ Mikko Rantanen might be trying ahead to some extra stability within the 2025-26 season.
He began final season on the Avalanche however was dealt to Carolina 49 video games into the season after contract extension talks stalled between him and the staff. The sticking level for Colorado was reportedly Rantanen asking to be paid greater than MacKinnon, one thing they simply wouldn’t take into account.
Rantanen then performed 13 video games in Carolina however the staff additionally had points getting an extension completed with the soon-to-be UFA. They selected the day of the commerce deadline to maneuver him as soon as once more to the Stars.
Nearly instantly, Rantanen signed an eight-year, $96 million contract extension.
Rantanen led the Stars in scoring by their playoff run, which resulted in a five-game loss to Edmonton within the Convention Finals.
By all that uncertainty, Rantanen nonetheless remained an elite participant. He completed the yr with 32 targets and 56 assists in 82 video games performed. The season didn’t earn Rantanen any consideration for the Hart Trophy, although.
The one factor that may work in Rantanen’s favor this season is the soundness offered by not being a UFA and, virtually actually, not being on the commerce block.
If he maintains his manufacturing from latest seasons, he might be a contender for the Hart Trophy.
