Matthews wins Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award after 60-goal campaign
Toronto Maple Leafs sniper Auston Matthews won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player on the strength of the league's first 60-goal season in a decade.
Matthews also won the Ted Lindsay Award on Tuesday, which goes to the league's most outstanding player as voted by his peers.
The 24-year-old edged out Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin to win MVP. McDavid led the league in scoring with 123 points, while Shesterkin, who was awarded the Vezina Trophy on Tuesday, authored one of the best goaltending seasons in recent memory.
Here's how the voting broke down, with Matthews winning in a landslide:
| Rank | Player | Points | Votes (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Auston Matthews | 1630 | (119-49-15-6-4) |
| 2 | Connor McDavid | 1111 | (29-66-56-20-19) |
| 3 | Igor Shesterkin | 738 | (24-26-41-29-24) |
| 4 | Johnny Gaudreau | 617 | (3-19-44-66-36) |
| 5 | Jonathan Huberdeau | 506 | (13-21-21-31-31) |
Matthews is only the third Maple Leaf in the franchise's 104-year history to win the Hart Trophy and the first since 1954-55. He's the club's only player to win the Ted Lindsay.
He finished the year sixth in scoring with a career-high 106 points but only played in 73 games due to injuries and suspension. Matthews' 1.45 points per game trailed only McDavid (1.54) among players to suit up in at least 50 contests this season. His 0.82 goals per game in 2021-22 is the highest clip in the salary-cap era and the most since Mario Lemieux's 0.99 in 1995-96.
On top of leading the league in goals for the second year in a row, Matthews excelled defensively. He finished 10th in Selke voting and led all forwards with 92 takeaways. Matthews also paced all forwards to play at least 1,000 minutes with a 64.15% expected goals rate and finished second under the same parameters in expected goals against per 60 at 2.04, according to Evolving-Hockey.
Matthews was also a Hart Trophy finalist in 2020-21.