Ziggy Palffy 97/98 season: No votes for Hart Trophy

[alko]

Thats a little bit strange. In this season he was the dominant player for Islanders.

Had 20 goals more than second Reichel. Also 22 points more. Also 17 PPG, 2 SHG and 5 GWG. And not a single vote for Hart Trophy. And that was the time, when there were already points for 5. place.

Rk	Player	Age	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TOI	ATOI	OPS	DPS	PS
1	Ziggy Palffy	25	RW	82	45	42	87	-2	34	26	17	2	5	22	18	2	277	16.2			10.9	1.1	12.1
2	Robert Reichel	26	C	82	25	40	65	-11	32	17	8	0	2	16	24	0	201	12.4			6.5	0.8	7.2
3	Bryan Berard	20	D	75	14	32	46	-32	59	5	8	1	2	11	21	0	192	7.3			4.8	1.4	6.2
4	Bryan Smolinski	26	C	81	13	30	43	-16	34	10	3	0	4	22	7	1	203	6.4			2.9	0.6	3.5
5	Kenny Jonsson	23	D	81	14	26	40	-2	58	8	6	0	2	12	12	2	108	13.0			4.0	4.0	8.0
6	Tom Chorske	31	LW	82	12	23	35	7	39	7	1	4	2	19	3	1	132	9.1			1.9	1.5	3.4
7	Sergei Nemchinov	34	C	74	10	19	29	3	24	7	2	1	1	18	1	0	94	10.6			1.3	1.2	2.5
8	Travis Green	27	C	54	14	12	26	-19	66	6	8	0	2	5	7	0	99	14.1			2.2	0.1	2.3
9	Mariusz Czerkawski	25	RW	68	12	13	25	11	23	10	2	0	1	12	1	0	136	8.8			1.4	1.4	2.8
10	Claude Lapointe	29	C	78	10	10	20	-9	47	9	0	1	3	9	0	1	82	12.2			0.2	0.8	1.0

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[JackSlater]

I imagine that he would have received votes had the Islanders made the playoffs. Only two players received Hart votes on non-playoff teams, though it's a little odd that those players (Selanne and Gretzky) finished 3rd and 5th. Selanne outscored his closest teammate by 33 points, Gretzky outscored his closest teammate by 28.

 

[vikash1987]

That was a great season for Palffy. But yeah, I was going to also say that the Islanders’ failure to qualify for the playoffs probably accounts for his total lack of Hart votes.

I think Mario in ‘88 was the only time the Hart was awarded to a player on a non-playoff team in the Expansion era. (Not counting Draisaitl’s Oilers this year.) It just doesn’t happen very often, and obviously, this is something that the voters are looking for.

1997-98 was a bit unusual in that several of the league’s top scorers failed to make the playoffs: Palffy, Bure, Selanne, Gretzky, Fleury, Amonte, Sundin. Honestly, it’s quite impressive that Selanne and Gretzky got as many votes as they did, despite bot making the playoffs.

 

[sr edler]

Bure didn't get any Hart votes this year either and he had better stats than Palffy in all relevant categories outside of assists (Palffy had 3 more assists). This is the season many Canucks fans hates Bure for, because they think he played a selfish goal-suck game. He still led his team in plus/minus with +5, in assists (39) and had 30 more points than the next guy. It seems all Hart votes for "high scoring right winger on non-playoff team" this season went to Selänne. Palffy actually finished 5th and behind Bondra in RW all-star voting despite having more points.

Short answer is: his team didn't make the playoffs and he was outshone on his position by similar players.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i think being a small skilled european, he was going to get the stigma of being a bad team scorer on a team like that.

imo, he should have been top 5 for the hart in 2003 though. he got zero votes, but by that time, especially having seen him in the playoffs against colorado the previous spring and detroit the year before, they should have known he was the real deal. even not making the playoffs i wouldn't have considered my ballot complete without him.

 

[alko]

imo, he should have been top 5 for the hart in 2003 though.

Omg, you right. Didnt realized this season. He had 42 points more, that the second Schneider.

1.	Zigmund Pálffy (RW)	76	37	48	85	47	22	|	-
2.	Mathieu Schneider (D)	65	14	29	43	57	0	|	-
3.	Bryan Smolinski (C)	58	18	20	38	18	-1	|	-
4.	Jaroslav Modrý (D)	82	13	25	38	68	-13	|	-
5.	Derek Armstrong (C)	66	12	26	38	30	5

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