The Bruins have plenty of players worthy of taking home some hardware at the end of the season, however, they all have some serious competition.
Here are the four Bruins who have a legit shot at winning one of four of the major trophies and their primary competition.
Hart Trophy
The right to be called the NHL’s MVP is a huge honor, but do the Bruins have someone worthy of the award?
Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron have been lighting up the scoreboard, however, they simply have too much competition to take this one.
Marchand has had too many discipline issues and while Bergeron’s 49 points are impressive, there have been many other dominant players in the league this season.
Tampa Bay Lighting Forward Nikita Kucherov leads the league in points while Alex Ovechkin’s 33 goals are the most in the NHL. Both have led their teams this season and could take home MVP.
A surprise MVP candidate has been Flyers forward Jakub Voracek. He only has 11 goals, but he runs the team’s offense with a whopping 53 assists.
Another legit MVP candidate is a star center from Pittsburgh, and his name isn’t Sidney Crosby. Evgeni Malkin has been chasing Ovechkin for the most goals in the league and has shown incredible leadership all season.
Phil Kessel has also had a dominant offensive season, but with the two playing alongside Crosby, they likely won’t get as much MVP buzz as Kucherov or Ovechkin.
James Norris Trophy
The way I see it, the race for the James Norris is gonna come down to three players, and Zdeno Chara is definitely one of them.
The Bruins leader on the blue line has is +27 on the ice, which is the third best in the NHL. Chara has been dominant from the beginning of the season, but he has some serious competition.
Chara’s competition may not have as strong of a plus-minus, but they’ve still been solid and they’ve both been more productive offensively.
Drew Doughty is +18 on the ice but has 40 points on offense to go along with it. He is the leader of a dominate LA Kings defense. The high quality of his team’s defense as a whole may play a role on whether or not he earns the award.
Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning has also enjoyed a dominant defensive year to go along with his 41 points.
Calder Memorial Trophy
Charlie McAvoy is one of the two favorites to land the Calder this season. McAvoy has been hyped for several seasons now and he’s exceeded all expectations.
He’s been the best rookie defenseman by far and has 26 points to go along with his dominant play at the blue line.
McAvoy’s rookie of the year campaign will be threatened by Matthew Barzal of the New York Islanders.
For as dominant as McAvoy has been on defense, Barzal has been unstoppable on offense. The rookie Center has 16 goals and 46 assists.
Vezina Trophy
Tuukka Rask has had a very impressive season, but it won’t be enough to earn the Vezina.
While Rask has a shot at earning the William M Jennings Trophy for allowing the least goals with a minimum of 25 starts, however, there have been three other netminders who have been incredibly dominant.
Andrei Vasilevskiy and Pekka Rinne have been unreal this season and have to be the favorites to land the Vezina this year.
Jonathan Quick has had a great year as well, but his brief slump might be enough to knock him out of the race given how incredible Rinne and Vasilevskiy have been.
