There is so much wrong with this post lol.
Your main premise is: "most points = most valuable". Then you proceed to say: "well if it's close, maybe it's different". Then you go into the classic "goals vs. assists" argument to boost up Ovechkin.
Secondly, you said "it's not about picking Hall is essentially the biggest part of the NJ pie, and they suck". Don't you think that's a bit disingenuous? Hall is single-handedly carrying that team to the playoffs, with only one other 40 point producer on the team. They have a negative goal differential for crying out loud.
Finally, going off your logic, Kessel is more valuable to PIT than Hall to NJ because he has more points. Can't you see how that makes no sense? People are trying to stretch the argument so far to make it seem like any team that is garbage automatically should give the MVP to their best player. No one is saying that. People are saying Hall is having a great season (missed 5 games) on a team that is not good at all, with a massive lead in points and currently in a playoff spot.
Well Hall contributes mostly only offense. Which is why i'm looking at point totals only.
Ovechkin contributes a lot of goals. In a vacuum, more goals make up for a few less point I think. So if Ovi finishes with 55 goals 45 assists 100 points, and Kucherov has 105 points but much less goals - I can see a case for Ovi for Hart. Hall doesn't have a big edge on goals on Kucherov, and he has a big gap on points. So he's neither/nor.
Other aspects outside of offense that can matter. Defensive play (something i personally don't care much about, but can still appreciate the argument). So if someone like Bergeon or Kopitar were in contention for Hart and someone wanted to argue "well he has less points than Kucherov but makes up for it with defensive play" - it could make sense if the gap in offense wasn't that big. Again - Hall doesn't really have that.
Does Hall have intangibles? Toews. Crosby even. I could see a hypothetical where one of them finishes 5-6 points back of a scoring race but people say "yeah but - he was the captain and such a great leader full of intangibles all year that helped propel his team to success, so the 5-6 point gap is not enough and i'll give him the hart". Hall doesn't really have intangibles (no more than Kuch).
So yeah. When comparing Kucherov and Hall i look at mostly just points and overall offense. And the gap is wide. Hall may have played less games, but that's actually a component in the hart race, so it's fair if less games played ends up hurting him.
Regarding Kessel vs Hall, since you brought it up. There is 2 points difference (70 vs 68). Kessel is also not even the best player on his team (ie people will vote for Malkin above Kessel). So in a Hall vs Kessel debate for Hart, yes as of now Hall is easily ahead.
The "weak team" argument Hall has doesn't count for nothing. That's not what i'm saying. All i'm saying is people tend to overrate the importance of it by a lot. Hall and Kucherov are very similar players when it comes to hart. Both wingers, who bring offense. That's their value to a team. And Kucherov has simply been quite a bit better so far, and warrants being ahead in the Hart race. If Hall was within 3-4 points of Kucherov? Ok at that point i'd be willing to consider Hall based on the "weak team" argument. But the gap is too big right now.
No?
