Should Henrik Zetterberg win the Hart trophy this season?

Question

He wasn't expected to perform this well for any team. The Red Wings drafted him in the 7th round and he is 1st pick overall material. The players surrounding him atop the league leading points list are high first round draft picks. Lecavelier, Crosby, Thornton, Sundin. Should he win MVP at least once in his career because of what a great player he turned out to be?

I mean the players who usually win the Hart trophy are all expected to do great things? Shouldn't Zetterberg be more deserving of it because of what a low pick he was?

Lundqvist also a 7th round pick. When the Rangers gave him a shot they were probably thinking "farm team".

saints. How about the 209 other players that were drafted before Zetterberg? How many of them were over rated?

30 games into the year gives you a pretty good idea of who's going to finish where. Unless somebody implodes on themselves or has an unbelievable post all star breakthrough scoring 70 or more points, then the players who are in the top 10 points now will finish at least in the top 20. This is not early in the season. Must be Edmonton fans.

You can't say draft position doesn't influence a vote. Perhaps not as much as if this was his only good year but he's been a good player since he started. It's like if you put a quarter in the gumball machine and all the gumballs just started pouring out. The Red Wings hit the jackpot. If a great player like Zetterberg was drafted first round you would say "well, yes, he's a top seed, he should be good" but he wasn't. He was 210th overall. Datsyuk was a 5th round pick so the same thing applies. Lidstrom was 3rd round so not so much. Zetterberg is Hart material....end of story.

Answer 1

Over rated. Send him back to Sweden.

Answer 2

Let's wait until at least after the All-Star break to talk Hart's. If he keeps up what he is doing now he definitely should be considered. Lecavelier is probably the front runner now because of his points. I watch every Wings game and can say that Zetterberg is a top 5 forward offensively and defensively. I don't get a chance to see Lecavelier much because he is in the Eastern Conference so I really don't know much about his game and it doesn't help that Versus only shows the Pittsburgh Crosbies and the Washington Ovechkins games. Also no one wins the Hart based on how high they were drafted.
GO WINGS!!!!!

Answer 3

Honestly, you take Zetterberg away and the Red Wings are still a good team. It's not like he's a Crosby/Ovechkin. He's good but he's like all Red Wings in the '90s onwards, cogs in the machine.

He was expected to perform well. That's why the Red Wngs drafted him and that's why after Fedorov, Yzerman and Shanahan are gone, the Wings did not go out and deal for a superstar. The Wings got him in the 7th rd. becaus ethey have good scouts and he was rated at the time as a first rounder anyway.

Before you anoit Zetterberg as a "great," let's see him do this for a few more years. Remember Toadtuzzi was a great power forward who looked like he'd rocketed to the Neely/Shanny throne until he lost it vs. Steve Moore.

Answer 4

I can name several players off the top of my head who were in the top 10 after 40 games and finished outside of the top 50 in scoring (without being injured)

Martin St. Louis is up their surrounding him on the points leaderboard, should we give him the Hart trophy simply because he was UNDRAFTED................which is a lot worse than being 210th.

The draft is a crap shoot. The difference between the first ranked kid and the 500th ranked kid is not that much.

Having presided over 24 NHL drafts, where you were drafted is irrelevant. teams draft different players for different reasons, be it to take the best player available, or to fill a specific hole.

Zetterberg was ranked 197th in his draft year, and dropped 13 places.


Think of all the players in NHL history drafted lower than Zetterberg who put up better numbers. None of them have won the Hart, and neither will Zetterberg.

Answer 5

Why does his low draft slot come into this? Keep it simple. What player could you take off of a team and they would sink? Plenty to chose from so far and IF Zetterberg keeps up his pace he should get consideration. But then so should Lundqvist, Lecavalier, Luongo, Sundin, Crosby, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin and Thornton.

Answer 6

Zetterberg is playing great but your only 30 games into the season. Let's see how he finishes the year. Personally I think Datsyuk is better than Zetterberg.

Answer 7

We will see how he plays for the rest of the season. I doubt he will get it this year, but it's a possibility. It doesn't matter whether someone is expected to do well or not. all the matters is performance. He doesn't deserve it any more than Crosby or Thornton or anyone else with high expectations.

Answer 8

Who knows... he got here close to to a one hundred factor season final year and he ignored quite some video games... i think of he performs like one... i see him day in and day out... yet i dont see iginla, crosby, heatley, ovechkin and them day in and day out so i definitely won't be in a position to assert there no longer worth.... yet i think of hank could get various recognizition.

Answer 9

Drink the Kool-Aid

Lidstrom and Zetterberg good players without a doubt but they are not Jesus but keep drinking the kool-aid and they should both have their own wing in the hall or fame.

Answer 10

Being drafted has nothing to do with winning the Hart.

I'm going to have to say Vinny, if he can stay healthy.

Maybe the other King Henrik, Lundvqist.

Answer 11

When he was drafted does not affect the hart. It's a vote among hockey writers for the person who was Most valuable to his team. however, I would not be at all surprised if he was nominated and won, the way he's been leading that team.