NHL awards preview for 2019-20 season

He somehow finished only sixth in the MVP voting a year ago, but with the Avalanche poised to be Stanley Cup contenders and MacKinnon being one of the league's most dominant and productive offensive players, he should be considered a strong preseason favorite for the award. He is the engine that drives the Avalanche. 

The reigning league MVP, Kucherov is coming off one of the most dominant offensive seasons in league history. There is no reason to think he won't be the top scorer on the team again — barring injury, of course — and with the Lightning again looking like the league's best team, that is going to get him more MVP consideration. He received 164 out of 171 first-place votes a year ago. 

He may not be a 120-point scorer anymore, but he can still carry the Penguins and be the game's most complete player. He has already won the Hart Trophy two times in his career and has been a finalist five other times. That includes four times as the runner-up, as he was during the 2018-19 season. As long as he is healthy and the Penguins are good, you can bet he plays his way into the MVP discussion. 

If you do not cheer for (or play for) the Bruins, he is going to annoy you and anger you with his many on-ice antics. He is also going to beat your team. Marchand is one of the NHL's best all-around players with his combination of elite offense, great defense,, and ability to drive possession. Along with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, he helps form one of the league's most dominant lines for a Stanley Cup contender. 

If we are being honest, he should probably win the MVP every year because there is no one who contributes more to his team than McDavid. The problem for him is that the rest of his team is absolutely awful and will probably be far away from playoff contention once again. That will hurt him in the eyes of voters. He finished in third place in the voting this past season, so you have to consider him a contender, but the Oilers will have to be better for him to win over the majority of voters. 

Hedman is a regular in the Norris Trophy discussion and has been in the top three of the voting three years in a row. He is as complete of a blue liner as there is in the league with his ability to play 23 minutes a night and dictate the pace of the play in all three zones and in every situation. Kucherov is the MVP contender on the Lightning, but Hedman might actually be their most important player. 

When he is healthy there is not a more impactful, game-changing defender anywhere in the league. At his peak Karlsson has been one of the most, if not the most, impactful defensemen in the league since the days of Bobby Orr. He is a one-man breakout coming out of the defensive zone, has sublime passing skills and can take over a game at any time. He is a two-time Norris Trophy winner and has probably deserved one or two more.

One of two Norris Trophy contenders on the Sharks blue line, Burns has his shortcomings in the defensive zone. But there is nobody in the league right now who is better offensively than he is from the blue line. He finished the 2018-19 season averaging more than a point per game, and he produces like a top-line forward, making him a unique asset for the Sharks.

Following the Blue Jackets' offseason exodus in free agency, Jones is now the face of the franchise. That is not exactly a bad thing either. He is a great cornerstone piece to build around and has rapidly become one of the top all-around blue liners in the NHL. When he is paired with Zach Werenski, there are not many defense duos in the league who are better, and their ability to lock down a game for more than 20 minutes a night will always give the Blue Jackets a chance. 

He has always been an underrated player, but that became even more true this past season when the rapid development of Miro Heiskanen on the Stars  blue line stole even more of Klingberg's thunder. The fact he did not even get a single Norris Trophy vote is kind of stunning. The Stars' strength is that they have superstar-level players at every position, and Klingberg remains their best one on defense. 

The race for the NHL's scoring title is probably a two-player one between Kucherov and McDavid. Over the past three seasons, they are head and shoulders above the rest of the league in total points and the only ones to have topped 300 total points during that stretch (no one else has more than 278). The Art Ross was one of Kucherov's many awards during the 2018-19 season, finishing with an almost unbelievable 128 points. 

McDavid's point total has increased every season he has been in the NHL, and there is little reason to expect that to change this season. It seems that 120 points is well within reach for him and if he gets there, it is hard to imagine anyone else topping him. 

He is the other good player in Edmonton right now. You almost have to include Draisaitl in the scoring chance discussion because he finished the 2018-19 season with 50 goals and 100 points, the first player to do so since the 2011-12 season. Only four players (Draisaitl, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin) have managed that over the past 15 years. He was in the top four league wide in goals and points, and as long as he gets significant minutes next to McDavid he is going to continue to put up a LOT of goals and points. 

MacKinnon's breakout offensively over the past two years is one of the biggest factors in the Avalanche's rise. He has finished with 97 (in only 74 games) and 99 points the past two years, respectively, and now that he is entering his age 24 season (typically around the time players hit their scoring peaks) he should be considered a real threat to win the scoring title, especially on an Avalanche team that is looking loaded with young talent at every spot. 

Gaudreau is one of the smallest players in the NHL and the proof that teams should not be shy away from skilled, undersized players. He is one of the most exciting forwards in the league and a dynamic offensive playmaker who makes everyone around him better. He may not score a ton of goals, but he is going to set up a lot and challenge for a scoring title at some point in his career. Why not this season?

Playing on the Lightning he is going to pile up a ton of wins, and that is going to get the attention of the general managers who vote on the award. But it's not just the win total that builds his reputation. He is also an outstanding goalie who can dominate a game. After being a finalist during the 2017-18 season, he won the award this past season. 

One of the more underrated and overlooked great goalies in the league, Bishop has been a finalist three different times in his career and is coming off a 2018-19 season where he finished with a league-best .934 save percentage. He may not get a lot of recognition as an elite goalie in the league, but he absolutely is. 

Bobrovsky was a two-time Vezina winner with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and now he moves on to the Panthers where they are hoping he can fix their biggest weakness from a year ago. If he gives them Vezina-caliber goaltending, that should absolutely be enough to get them in the playoffs. The Panthers spent a ton of money on him long term and that will carry some risk in the future. But for this season he should make a positive impact. 

He probably deserved more Vezina consideration than he received a year ago, but that is what happens when you play for a declining, going nowhere team that leaves you on an island every game: Your overall numbers suffer. Gibson is one of the best goalies in the league and will do everything he can to give his team a legitimate shot to win each night. It is up to the rest of the team to give him enough goal support to make that happen. 

Kind of an off-the-board pick, but Andersen has been a huge piece of the puzzle in Toronto from the moment he arrived, and he probably deserves more recognition for how good he has been. His ability to play a lot of games and play well is a huge part of the team's regular-season success especially while playing behind a defense that has not always been a team strength. 

One of the most successful coaches in league history and a future Hall of Famer, Quenneville has won the Jack Adams Award only one time in his career (during the 1999-00 season with the St. Louis Blues), which might tell you all you need to know about the voting process at play. He takes over the Panthers this season and looks to bring a winning attitude to what has been the least successful organization in the league. 

Trotz won the Jack Adams a year ago for helping the Islanders undergo a worst-to-first turnaround defensively while also making the playoffs in a year where expectations were at an all-time low for the team following the free agency departure of John Tavares. This year will be a big test to see how much of that turnaround was related to Trotz and how much of it was the goaltending of Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss. If the Islanders make the playoffs again, Trotz will be in the Jack Adams discussion for a second year in a row. 

The only thing his career is missing at this point is a Stanley Cup. He will get heat if the Lightning fall short again, but he is still one of the best coaches in the league. During his watch the Lightning have been in three Eastern Conference Finals, a Stanley Cup Final and won a Presidents' Trophy. He still needs the big trophy to complete his resume, but every team in the league would love to have him behind its bench. 

Here is my thinking: The Coach of the Year Award almost always goes to someone whose team overachieves and exceeds expectations. I think the Blue Jackets have a chance to be better than anyone expects them to be this season after losing several key players in free agency over the summer. If they are, and if they make the playoffs, Tortorella would almost certainly be a lock to at least be a finalist for the award. 

After narrowly missing out a year ago, the Arizona Coyotes seem positioned to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2011-12 season now that they have Phil Kessel on the roster. Tocchet did an amazing job a year ago keeping his team in the mix until the end of the season despite an absurd list of injuries that never stopped growing throughout the season. The Western Conference, and especially the Pacific Division, is wide open for the Coyotes to get back in the postseason. 

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft, Hughes is entering a pretty good situation where he is going to be surrounded by a lot of top-line talent. There will be some growing pains for sure, but he has the players around him to make an immediate impact. The No. 1 overall pick has won the award in three of the past five seasons. 

It was a great summer for the Rangers rebuild with the additions of veterans Artemi Panarin and Jacob Trouba, and the draft lottery luck that saw them move to the No. 2 pick where they were able to select Kakko. They needed a young franchise player to build this whole thing around, and Kakko could be that player. He has been a human highlight reel at every stop in his development and along with Hughes in New Jersey, he is going to help strengthen one of the league's best rivalries. 

The Avalanche will be leaning heavily on young defenders this season, and Makar, the No. 4 overall pick in 2018, might be the best of the bunch. He is going to get an opportunity to put up some big numbers on a loaded Colorado team that hopes to play for the Stanley Cup this season. He made his NHL debut in the playoffs a year ago, jumping right into the lineup from the NCAA and never once looking out of place. 

The Canucks have had a Rookie of the Year contender in each of the past two seasons with Brock Boeser finishing as the runner-up (behind Mathew Barzal of the New York Islanders) in 2017-18 and Elias Pettersson winning it during the 2018-19 season. They have another early front-runner this season in Hughes. The Canucks are counting on him to be their franchise defenseman, and he showed a ton of potential in his brief five-game sampling a year ago. He has huge talent and will get to play a big role for the Canucks this season. 

Somewhat of a sleeper pick here, but the Blue Jackets are going to need some young forwards to step up in an effort to replace the offense that walked away over the summer when Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel exited in free agency. Texier will be one of those players. He is a skilled forward who made a strong first impression in the playoffs a year ago and is going to be counted on to play a big role this season. Do not be surprised to see him produce quite a bit and help the Blue Jackets exceed expectations.