Updated 2023 Hart Trophy Rankings as the NHL's MVP

When it comes to the NHL's 2022-23 regular season, we're nearly halfway through.

And as several teams begin sizing up where they stand in the 82-game chase for the playoffs, it's also time to look at which individual players have put themselves into consideration for recognition come awards seasons.

The B/R hockey staff assembled a list of the top 10 early favorites for the Hart Trophy—presented annually to the league's most valuable player—as the season got underway in October, and we've returned to update the list now that the calendar has turned to 2023.

Multiple criteria are in play, though on-ice performance and value to their respective teams are the most significant factors considered.

Agree or disagree with our takes? Someone we missed?

Let us know in the comments section.

Sometimes guys take a while to adjust to the NHL game.

But in Kirill Kaprizov's case, not so much.

The Russian winger arrived as a much-discussed 23-year-old in 2020 and promptly won the Calder Trophy in his first season with the Minnesota Wild.

And he's done precisely nothing since to stop the momentum.

A 108-point season earned him two first-place votes and an overall seventh-place finish in the 2021-22 Hart Trophy voting, and he figures to be a factor again this time around thanks to 20 goals and 45 points in his first 36 games.

He's been in on more than a third of Minnesota's 116 goals, and he'll play a large role in how much the Wild, who were eight points down heading into Monday's games, factor into the Central Division race heading down the stretch.

Call it a shadow or don't, but regardless of how you characterize Leon Draisaitl's place on the Edmonton Oilers as long as Connor McDavid wears the same sweater, make no mistake about the burly forward's own NHL chops.

The guy can play, no matter who is on the team.

Only one player in the entire league, McDavid himself, has scored more points than Draisaitl since the latter became a full-time contributor in 2015. The 6'2", 208-pounder is third overall in goals and fourth in assists across that same time frame and has twice reached the 50-goal plateau, something his celebrated teammate, at least as of now, has never done.

Draisaitl won the Hart Trophy after he posted 43 goals and 110 points in 2019-20, and he was ninth in last season's voting.

The truth is that he's not likely to win this year so long as McDavid keeps up his video game-quality play, but to not include him on any list of the NHL's top players and/or award candidates would be a colossal oversight.

The first of four newcomers on our updated list, Buffalo center Tage Thompson is following up a terrific 2021-22 with an even better 2022-23.

The 6'6", 220-pounder was shut out of the balloting after putting up career bests of 38 goals and 68 points last season, but it's a fair bet that won't happen this time.

He currently ranks second in the league in goals (27) and sixth in points (51) through just 35 games, leading in both categories for a Sabres team that's over .500 and close to contending for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

That'd be a huge step forward for an organization that hasn't seen the postseason since 2011. It would also be further validation of a win-win trade that brought Thompson, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2016, to Buffalo as part of a package for Ryan O'Reilly in July 2018.

O'Reilly and the Blues captured a Stanley Cup the following season, and the 25-year-old Thompson is second on the Sabres in both goals and points since that deal.

They're the defending Stanley Cup champions, so it's no surprise the Colorado Avalanche had two players on our initial Hart list.

What might be a shocker is that while the renewed list still has one Colorado player, it's neither Nathan MacKinnon (seventh in October) nor Cale Makar (third).

Instead, it's 26-year-old Finnish winger Mikko Rantanen who's crashed the party on the strength of 24 goals and 45 points through 35 games for an Avalanche team that's been beset by injuries and inconsistent play.

Still, though he's sometimes forgotten in favor of more celebrated teammates, it's really more of the same for the 6'4", 215-pound Rantanen. He has been a point-per-game player in four of six full-time NHL seasons since Colorado took him 10th overall in the 2015 draft.

He had career highs with 36 goals and 92 points during the 2021-22 regular season, and his 25 postseason points were second-best on the team behind Makar's 29 during the Avalanche's run to their first Cup since 2001.

If they get there again it's a safe bet Rantanen will have played an MVP-caliber role.

The Boston Bruins are the NHL's best team.

But somehow, if you ask fans about the Bruins' best player, you might not hear David Pastrnak's name first.

Though he's sometimes lost in the shuffle amid higher-profile guys like Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, it's been the 26-year-old Czech winger leading the statistical way while establishing a career-best pace through Sunday.

A first-round pick in 2014, Pastrnak is tops in Boston in goals (25), assists (25) and points (50) through 36 games. This comes on the heels of a 2021-22 season in which he reached 40 goals for the second time and was a point-per-game producer for the fourth straight year.

His current scoring rate would yield 56 goals and 56 assists and would culminate in the first 100-point season for the 6'1", 195-pounder who has a quick, accurate shot and world-class speed.

He's in the final season of a six-year, $40 million deal and hasn't declared his long-term intentions, which is no doubt causing consternation in the fanbase. Regardless, there's little doubt his annual salary will spike thanks to this season's numbers, and it's a slam dunk that he'll get at least some Hart attention come voting time.

The champ—or at least the guy who most recently won the Hart Trophy—is here.

Auston Matthews had already established himself among the best goal-scorers in a generation prior to a remarkable 2021-22 season in which he set a Maple Leafs scoring record and became the first NHL player since 2011-12 to reach 60 goals.

The output was enough to earn 119 of 195 first-place votes and outdistance Edmonton's McDavid to win the Hart, and it's no surprise he was considered a serious contender to reel in his second straight MVP when the season began in October.

The goals haven't come at such a prodigious rate in 2022-23—his 18 in 37 games would barely get him to 40—but he's still produced a point per game, and he'll no doubt be helped by team success that's seen Toronto climb to third overall behind Boston and Carolina.

Lest anyone think he's just a goal-scorer, Matthews averages better than 20 minutes of ice time per game, wins more than 50 percent of his faceoffs and has the team's second-best plus-minus mark at plus-17. He may not repeat with the Hart, but if his performance carries over to the playoffs, go ahead and put him down among the early favorites to win the Conn Smythe.

He won't win a third scoring title this season.

And probably not a fourth Stanley Cup either.

But when you see a 35-year-old who's clearly the best player on his team and on pace to finish with more than 90 points for the first time since the 2018-19 season, you cut him a little voting slack.

Especially if his name is Sidney Crosby.

The generational superstar already has a pair of Hart Trophies on his resume to go with the scoring titles and the Stanley Cups. But the optics of him keeping an aging Pittsburgh squad relevant—the Penguins are just five points out of second place in an ultra-competitive Metropolitan Division—do nothing but enhance an already Hall of Fame legacy.

He leads the team in goals, assists, points, shooting percentage and ice time among forwards, and it's difficult to envision Pittsburgh having anything close to the same success thus far if he weren't in the lineup.

Simply maintaining current production would get Crosby to 40 goals for the first time since 2016-17 to go with his 90-point pace. Perhaps that's enough for a first-place vote or two, out of respect if nothing else.

Being the best player on an OK team is one thing.

But being the best player on a team loaded with stars is something else.

Nikita Kucherov certainly qualifies as the latter. And it's been that way for a while.

The 29-year-old Russian winger has been a point-per-game player for each of his last five seasons in Tampa Bay and has racked up a scoring title and an MVP along the way, not to mention Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.

A 2011 second-round pick of the Lightning, Kucherov is a strong skater with terrific puck-handling prowess and a knack for putting himself in scoring positions. He's been hampered by illness and/or injuries for the last few seasons but is a true difference-maker when healthy and is particularly productive in clutch situations

He led the team in scoring during both postseason runs, and the 40 assists and 53 points he's posted through 35 games this season are tops for the Lightning while also placing him in a tie for first (assists) and fourth (points) across the entire league.

Jason Robertson signed a $31 million contract with the Dallas Stars just before the start of the 2022-23 season. And he already looks underpaid.

No player in the NHL has done more to raise his profile from October to January than the 23-year-old winger, who's trumping the 41-goal breakout season he put forth in 2021-22.

The 39th overall pick in 2017's draft, Robertson was fifth in the league in goals (25) and eighth in assists (29) through Sunday's games, a pace that'll get him to 50 goals and over 100 points if he maintains it through the season's back half.

He had 17 goals in 51 games as a 21-year-old rookie two years ago before spiking to 41 goals and 79 points last season and picking up three fifth-place nods in Hart voting.

Though he's not particularly elite when it comes to skating, shooting or sublime playmaking, the 6'3", 200-pound Robertson succeeds due to a high motor in the offensive zone and a hockey IQ that gets him to dangerous spots on the ice at crucial times. Eleven of his 41 goals last season were game-winners.

He's up against an otherworldly foe when it comes to winning the Hart this season but he's certain to get some voting love regardless. It seems a cinch to suggest he'll get one of his own before he's through.

Write it in pen. Carve it in stone. Tattoo it on a prominent body part.

Barring an act of the hockey gods, Connor McDavid will win the Hart Trophy in 2022-23.

It would be his third in eight NHL years and ought to come via unanimous vote, though that status may be compromised by a dissenter not swayed by the fact the former No. 1 overall pick—who'll turn just 26 later this month—is doing things not done in a generation.

McDavid led the league in goals (32) and assists (40) through Sunday's games, and his 72 points put him on a pace that'd yield better than 150 over a full season, a plateau not reached since Mario Lemieux got to 161 in 1995-96.

In fact, only five players in league history have reached 150 at all: Wayne Gretzky (nine times), Lemieux (four times), Phil Esposito, Steve Yzerman and Bernie Nicholls (once apiece). McDavid's on course to do it after already posting a career-best 123 in 80 games last season on the heels of a ridiculous 105 in 56 games during a pandemic-altered 2020-21.

He'll pick up his 500th career assist (he's at 498) and 800th career point (he's at 769) at some point in the second half, and he could make a run at his 300th career goal (he's at 271) if he continues a pace that'll already get him to 50 goals for the first time.

Only those hung up on standings—Edmonton was 17th overall through Sunday and barely in a playoff spot—could even think of debating his Hart chops this season. McDavid could become the first player to score two unanimous MVP wins after first doing so following the 2020-21 season.

Only Gretzky's 92-goal, 212-point season in 1981-82 has also earned a voting sweep.