Nathan MacKinnon Cements Himself Among NHL Greats After Winning Hart Memorial Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award

After an incredible 2023-24 campaign where he became one of 12 players in NHL history to score at least 140 points in a single season, Nathan MacKinnon added to his personal trophy case.

After two second-place finishes and one third-place finish, MacKinnon won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player and after being a finalist on two previous occasions, he took home the Ted Lindsay Award as the league’s most outstanding player as voted by the NHL Players Association.

MacKinnon is the third player in franchise history to win the Hart Trophy (Peter Forsberg in 2002-03, Joe Sakic in 2000-01) and the second player in Avalanche/Nordiques history to win the Ted Lindsay Award (Sakic in 2000-01).

After winning these awards, MacKinnon became the sixth player in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup, the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Ted Lindsay Award, and score at least 140 points in a season, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Phil Esposito, and Nikita Kucherov. Of those six players, MacKinnon and Lemieux are the only ones to have also won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie. Between MacKinnon and Lemieux, only MacKinnon has won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, given to the player who exhibits sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.

That makes MacKinnon the first player in NHL history to score at least 140 points in a season, win the Calder Trophy, the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, the Stanley Cup, the Hart Memorial Trophy, and the Ted Lindsay Award.

MacKinnon has posted at least 1.21 points-per-game every year since the start of the 2017-18 season when he finished second in Hart Memorial Trophy voting, including six seasons with at least 1.30 points-per-game in the regular-season. In that time, his 693 regular-season points are third-most in the league behind Edmonton Oilers forwards Connor McDavid (834) and Leon Draisaitl (713), and his 458 even-strength points in the regular season are the second-most behind McDavid (527). In the playoffs during that span, his 104 points are third-most behind Kucherov (125) and McDavid (108) and his 65 even-strength points are second-most behind Kucherov (66).

Before Thursday’s NHL Awards, MacKinnon had already established himself as one of league’s best players, but with this new hardware, he’s making his case to be one of this generation’s greatest.