2023-24 Ted Lindsay Award finalists: Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Not really, when you step back and realize that McDavid has won four already, a number only equaled or surpassed by Gretzky and Lemieux (5 and 4 respectively). He is also a six-time finalist. During a year where he missed more games than the three finalists combined and didn’t repeat a 150 point season, the players are naturally going to vote like this. He’s competing with not only every peak singular season someone puts up, but also past versions of himself. There’s actually no mystery to it, thus making it quite uninteresting.

And when you step back and realize both kuch and mack were both better the entire season. It gets even more uninteresting.

 

[PaulD]

In what world was Matthews a better player than McDavid?

Laughable.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Players gotta value goals more than assists? Also, 69 goals. Nice.

 

[Leaf Fans]

Put Tavares up for the Messier.

Only Messier can do that.

 

[Oscar The Grouch]

Let’s make it clear that that’s your opinion of Selke level defence. That’s it.

My opinion is Selke level defence gets you invited to award night to win the Selke trophy. Just like an MVP level season gets Kucherov and Mackinnon to award night to win the Hart and/or Lindsay regardless of who actually wins it.

Either way, being a 69 goal scoring Selke finalist is a phenomenal season for an NHL player.

"Regular" season.

 

[Atomos2]

"Regular" season.

Uhhh yea, that’s kinda implied with the Selke finalist reference in a Ted Lindsay finalist thread. Did you not know those are regular season awards?

 

[Leaf Fans]

"Regular" season.

Yes, the individual awards are for the regular season with the exception of the Conn Smythe Trophy which is MVP of the playoffs.

 

[Maplebeasts]

Do you even know what you are trying to say here? Matthews is not the play driver on his line. Matthews main job is to score goals.

Matthews being a center doesn’t inherently make him better than Pasta. Matthews doesn’t play a traditional center role anyway.

Didn’t Pasta put up a crap ton more goals than Matthews last season? Pasta is consistently in the race and has won a Richard trophy before, so the gap in goal scoring is marginal.

Also the irony is Pasta ended your season in OT of game 7. Guy is pretty clutch too.

What? He is and has always been the driver of play on his line. The guy finished tied for second for the rocket in his rookie year when his linemates were Connor Brown and Hyman, and played his best hockey this season between Bertuzzi and Domi. Matthews being the better goal scorer (He has 3 rockets to Pasta's 1 and has outscored Pasta in almost every comparable year of their careers, usually by a significant amount), playing center, being better defensively, etc makes him better. Funny you want to credit Pasta for signficantly outscoring Matthews for last season while ignoring that this season and 2 seasons ago Matthews had a 20+ goal gap.