Best Players in the Pacific Division: Who Are the Hart Candidates?

Many of the best players in the league, who will be competing for this year’s Hart Trophy, can be found in the Pacific Division. 

If you’re going by the stat of faces-of-the-league, the Pacific may have the crown. It’s an embarrassment of riches with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the collection of stars in Vegas, and some of the other elite players in this division. 

Here’s a look at the five players with the shortest odds to win the NHL’s MVP award in the Pacific Division, with odds as of October 7. 

Connor McDavid, C, Oilers (+200)

Edmonton’s Connor McDavid currently holds the best odds to win the Hart Trophy in the league at +200. 

McDavid has won three Hart Trophies in his career, most recently for the 2022-23 season. 

Last year, McDavid finished in 10th place in the Hart voting, earning one second place vote. He finished the 2024-25 season with 26 goals and 74 assists, tied for his lowest points total in a non-COVID-shortened season. 

If McDavid can still be in the conversation in a down year for him, he’s earned the spot of preseason Hart favorite. 

Earlier this week, McDavid agreed to terms on a two-year, $25 million contract extension, kicking his UFA-status a little further down the road. That should eliminate some free agency related headaches for the Oilers and also allow them a little breathing room to continue improving the roster. 

Is there anything specific fueling McDavid’s status as MVP favorite? I don’t think so. McDavid will always be a contender for the Hart Trophy, no matter the circumstances. Like Shohei Ohtani for MLB and Patrick Mahomes for the NFL. 

Leon Draisaitl, C, Oilers (+1000)

McDavid’s co-star Leon Draisaitl is hoping to get back into the conversation for the Hart Trophy once again this year. 

Draisaitl won his first and only Hart Trophy after the 2019-20 season, during which he scored 43 goals and had 67 assists in 71 games played, leading the league in all three categories in that shortened season. 

He came close to winning it again last season, finishing in second place behind Connor Hellebuyck and receiving 53 first-place votes. 

Draisaitl led the league in scoring with 52 goals and led the league in game-winning goals with 11. He also had 54 assists. 

He probably would’ve won the award last year had he played in a few more games. He finished the year with 71 games played, his lowest since the 2020-21 season. 

Draisaitl will continue to be a contender for the Hart Trophy this season and could become a bigger one if we see him shouldering more of Edmonton’s offensive responsibilities. Basically, if McDavid is below his usual marks, then Draisaitl will probably be a top-three finisher for the Hart voting. 

How lucky are Oilers fans that they get two MVP candidates on their team every year? That has to translate to a Stanley Cup win at some point, right?

Jack Eichel, C, Golden Knights (+2800)

Vegas’ Jack Eichel will be contending for his first-ever Hart Trophy win this season. 

Eichel had 28 goals and 66 assists in 77 games played last season for the Golden Knights, the highest points total of his career thus far. Those numbers led him to a fifth-place finish in the Hart voting, although he never really felt like a contender. 

Last season was Eichel’s best finish in the MVP voting in his 10-year NHL career.

In my view, Eichel could face a more challenging path towards a Hart Trophy win this season. 

He hasn’t yet put up the kinds of numbers that would vaunt him over his peers like Nathan MacKinnon, Draisaitl, or McDavid. We just haven’t seen that kind of production out of him yet. 

If he puts up overwhelming numbers, obviously, he’ll be in consideration for a Hart win. But, how much of that could be attributed to his new teammate, Mitch Marner?

If Eichel is filling up the stat sheet, Marner would have to be as well. Now, this could lead to a ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ scenario, where both forwards are in the conversation for a Hart Trophy win. 

If the Knights are performing well this season and possibly leading the Division or Conference, I could see both Eichel and Marner being top contenders for the Hart Trophy. 

Quinn Hughes, D, Canucks (+4000)

Vancouver defenseman Quinn Hughes will be hoping to improve his availability this season with the Canucks. 

Hughes missed 14 games last year due to a series of undisclosed injuries. His snakebitten season not only affected his own production, dropping from 92 points in 2023-24 to 76 points in 2024-25, but the overall success of Vancouver, which ended up missing the playoffs.

The Canucks finished the year with a 38-30-14 record, landing them fifth place in the Pacific.

Despite that, Hughes still finished third-place in the Norris Trophy voting a season after winning it for the first time.

Hughes’ odds are only this short because he’s an elite player, and he deserves to be in the company of players who also are +4000 for the award, like Marner behind him. But Hughes’ offensive game or Vancouver’s standings would have to radically change for him to be a major contender for the Hart Trophy. 

Mitch Marner, RW, Golden Knights (+4000)

Marner winning the Hart Trophy would be one of the more entertaining outcomes of the 2025-26 season. 

Winning league MVP a season after leaving the Maple Leafs could legitimately be the final nail in the coffin for some Toronto fans. It could truly turn into a humanitarian crisis in Ontario. 

I think it’s more possible than the +4000 line suggests. 

Marner’s barely sniffed a Hart Trophy win, though. The only times he’s shown up in the voting totals were last season and in 2023, where he finished 13th both times. 

Even still, he has good enough numbers to be in the conversation. Last season, he finished the year with 102 points with 27 goals and 75 assists.

It’s reasonable to project that those numbers could improve with a potentially bigger role on the Golden Knights than he had with the Maple Leafs.