NHL MVP Candidates in the Eastern Conference: Who Are the Best Players in the East?

Hockey fans: you can refresh your scores or sports news app of choice and finally see real regular-season games. 

Yes, the 2026-27 NHL season is officially underway and now’s a good time to take a look at who the best players will be in the Eastern Conference. 

While the conference is home to the league’s two most serious contenders (which are, in my opinion, the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers) and the reigning winner, most of the highlight reel stars are playing on the West Coast. 

Regardless, here are the ten players from the East with the shortest preseason odds to win MVP, featuring an in-depth look at the top three.

NHL MVP Candidates in Eastern Conference

Nikita Kucherov, RW, Lightning (+1200)

The reigning Hart winner Nikita Kucherov has the best odds right now for any player in the East. He’s also probably the only player to be a legitimate contender for MVP, with the fifth-best odds behind four West players. 

Last year was Kucherov’s second Hart winner (he won his first in 2019), and he got there by scoring 44 goals and contributing 86 assists in 76 games played. He was second in the league in assists and overall points, trailing Connor McDavid in both categories. 

He finished ahead of McDavid in the Hart voting by just 10 votes. 

Kucherov, who turned 33 in June, will be on another contending Tampa team this season. The Lightning have the sixth-best odds to win the Stanley Cup at +1300 and the third-best Eastern Conference winner odds at +650. 

I think it’s pretty unlikely that Kucherov gets a back-to-back MVP year. He kind of robbed McDavid and MacKinnon of a Hart last season and I think the odds of him doing it again are quite slim. However, Kucherov’s Hart win and Hellebuyck’s in 2025 have proved that PWHA voters have an outside-the-box approach to MVP voting right now.

He’s a decent long shot, but the Hart Trophy likely doesn’t go back to him this season.

Auston Matthews, C, Maple Leafs (+1800)

What a rollercoaster ride for Toronto Maple Leafs fans at the end of last season. 

At one point, you’re staring into the NHL’s pit of despair as your superstar captain suffers a season-ending injury because of a knee-on-knee hit from Anaheim Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas (not to mention your captain’s teammates not really having his back in the immediate aftermath). Toronto then missed the playoffs.

But two months later, they won the draft lottery and the right to draft a generational prospect, forward Gavin McKenna.

Now, the 2026-27 season offers redemption and a potential return to the playoffs for the Maple Leafs and their captain Auston Matthews, who has +1800 odds to win the Hart Trophy. 

Matthews, a generational prospect who lived up to the hype, won his only Hart in 2022. I’m very bullish on his chance to win another this season. 

I think that Toronto — rejuvenated by the arrival of McKenna — will return to the playoffs, over-deliver on preseason expectations, and land Matthews in the Hart conversation. 

In his last season where he played more than 70 games, Matthew led the league in scoring. If he’s healthy again this season, he’ll return to that production and have more of an opportunity for assists if McKenna gets bumped up to the top line. 

David Pastrnak, RW, Bruins (+2500)

There’s an observable trend in sports where “new dads” perform better (I spent approximately two minutes reading a Reddit thread and another two reading a scholarly study on it, so I know it’s true), but can the same thing apply to new captains?

David Pastrnak could answer that question this year after being named captain of the Boston Bruins. 

The Bruins “C” spot had been vacant since they traded Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers in 2025. Now, after a year of speculation, it’s Pastrnak who’ll fill the void. 

Pastrnak, a 12-year NHL veteran who turned 30 last May, has never won league MVP. His best voting result was a second-place finish in 2023. 

Last season, Pastrnak had his fourth straight 100-point season (with 29 goals and a career-high 71 assists) and a +4 plus/minus rating. Although it was a great season assists-wise for Pasta, he finished with less than 40 goals for the first time since the COVID-shortened 2021 season. 

The Bruins roster is slightly improved this season around the margins, but the main players remain the same. Entering the season, they have +650 odds to get a Top 3 finish in the Atlantic Division. 

If Pastrnak can maintain his assist production from last season and return to a 40-goal mark, he could find himself in Hart Trophy territory this season.