Hockey Outsider
Registered User
- Jan 16, 2005
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(Moderators: I know some of the material here is repeated from other threads but I wanted to keep all the related research together, and the History forum is the most logical place to keep it).
HART TROPHY
From 1931 to 2023 (92 seasons), the Hart trophy winner was a first-team all-star 82 times (89%), second-team all-star 8 times (9%), and unofficial third-team all-star twice (2%).
Hart winners & second all star team
1934: Aurel Joliat LW (Busher Jackson 1st Team)
1948: Buddy O'Connor C (Elmer Lach 1st Team)
1950: Chuck Rayner G (Bill Durnan 1st Team)
1964: Jean Beliveau C (Stan Mikita 1st Team)
1973: Bobby Clarke C (Phil Esposito 1st Team)
1980: Wayne Gretzky C (Marcel Dionne 1st Team)
1989: Wayne Gretzky C (Mario Lemieux 1st Team)
2002: Jose Theodore G (Patrick Roy 1st Team)
Hart winners & unofficial third all star team
1954: Al Rollins G (Harry Lumley 1st Team, Terry Sawchuk 2nd Team)
1955: Ted Kennedy C (Jean Beliveau 1st Team, Ken Mosdell 2nd Team)
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It's interesting to examine the players in the latter category (ie, players who win the Hart trophy but who aren't first team all-stars that season).
In 1954, the Hart voting was done twice - once halfway through the season, and once at the end. Rollins appeared to have been dominant in the first half (posting an excellent 92.2% save percentage on an awful team) and was easily the vote leader partway through the season. His performance appears to have deteriorated in the second half of the year. Red Kelly, the runner-up, earned more votes than Rollins in the second-half voting, but not enough to catch up.
Rollins was excellent in 1953 and was runner-up to Howe`s absolutely dominant 1953 season (so maybe the voters gave him some extra votes the following year as they felt he lost a potential Hart due to bad timing).
The selection was openly questioned at the time (an article from 1954 states that "We can't recall when the experts made a more idiotic selection"). It's not outright historical revisionism for us to look at the stats six decades later and question it.
Also, some of the votes may have been pure pity - Rollins faced an enormous volume of shots on a very bad team (not a good reason IMO).
====
Kennedy announced his retirement prior to the 1954-55 season and this award is generally considered to be a "lifetime achievement award". He placed in the top five in Hart voting three times before (including finishing second in 1950) - he was definitely an elite player, just never the best in any given season. He was very similar to, although not as a good as, Mark Messier - a player with tons of "intangibles" who thrived in the playoffs.
It's also worth noting that three of the top five players in Hart voting were team mates (Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau and Doug Harvey) so maybe Kennedy benefited from "vote splitting".
HART TROPHY
From 1931 to 2023 (92 seasons), the Hart trophy winner was a first-team all-star 82 times (89%), second-team all-star 8 times (9%), and unofficial third-team all-star twice (2%).
Hart winners & second all star team
1934: Aurel Joliat LW (Busher Jackson 1st Team)
1948: Buddy O'Connor C (Elmer Lach 1st Team)
1950: Chuck Rayner G (Bill Durnan 1st Team)
1964: Jean Beliveau C (Stan Mikita 1st Team)
1973: Bobby Clarke C (Phil Esposito 1st Team)
1980: Wayne Gretzky C (Marcel Dionne 1st Team)
1989: Wayne Gretzky C (Mario Lemieux 1st Team)
2002: Jose Theodore G (Patrick Roy 1st Team)
Hart winners & unofficial third all star team
1954: Al Rollins G (Harry Lumley 1st Team, Terry Sawchuk 2nd Team)
1955: Ted Kennedy C (Jean Beliveau 1st Team, Ken Mosdell 2nd Team)
====
It's interesting to examine the players in the latter category (ie, players who win the Hart trophy but who aren't first team all-stars that season).
In 1954, the Hart voting was done twice - once halfway through the season, and once at the end. Rollins appeared to have been dominant in the first half (posting an excellent 92.2% save percentage on an awful team) and was easily the vote leader partway through the season. His performance appears to have deteriorated in the second half of the year. Red Kelly, the runner-up, earned more votes than Rollins in the second-half voting, but not enough to catch up.
Rollins was excellent in 1953 and was runner-up to Howe`s absolutely dominant 1953 season (so maybe the voters gave him some extra votes the following year as they felt he lost a potential Hart due to bad timing).
The selection was openly questioned at the time (an article from 1954 states that "We can't recall when the experts made a more idiotic selection"). It's not outright historical revisionism for us to look at the stats six decades later and question it.
Also, some of the votes may have been pure pity - Rollins faced an enormous volume of shots on a very bad team (not a good reason IMO).
====
Kennedy announced his retirement prior to the 1954-55 season and this award is generally considered to be a "lifetime achievement award". He placed in the top five in Hart voting three times before (including finishing second in 1950) - he was definitely an elite player, just never the best in any given season. He was very similar to, although not as a good as, Mark Messier - a player with tons of "intangibles" who thrived in the playoffs.
It's also worth noting that three of the top five players in Hart voting were team mates (Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau and Doug Harvey) so maybe Kennedy benefited from "vote splitting".
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