Edmonton Oilers’ forward Leon Draisaitl was voted as Hart Memorial Trophy winner for the 2019/20 season. Draisaitl won the NHL’s Most Valuable Player award thanks to a dominant regular season campaign that saw him score 43 goals and add 67 assists for league-leading 110 points.
Besides winning the Hart Memorial Trophy, voted by Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, Draisaitl also won the Ted Lindsay Award. The award is given to the “most outstanding player in hockey” and is voted by players.
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon and New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin finished second and third in the voting for both Hart Memorial Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award.
By winning the award, Leon Draisaitl became the first German player to win the MVP award in NHL, and second in major sports after Dirk Nowitzki won one in NBA. Draisaitl is also only the fourth Oilers’ player to receive the Ted Lindsay Award, following the footsteps of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, and Connor McDavid.
While dominating the regular season, Draisailt couldn’t help the Oilers make an impact in the playoffs, where they didn’t go past the qualifying round.
“It’s a nice personal reward,” said Draisaitl. “But there’s nothing that comes ahead of the Stanley Cup. That’s the same for any player in the league. If I could hand those two or three awards back in for a Stanley Cup, I would do that in a heartbeat, and I think so would everyone else.”
Draisailt completed his fifth NHL season in 2019/20. He played a total of 422 games in the league so far, scoring 168 goals and dishing 254 assists for a total of 422 points.
