Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon had a career season. Not only did he lead the team in scoring, he topped his previous points total by a mile — his 97 points were a full 34 points than his previous best, earned his rookie season.
In all that, MacKinnon was pretty consistently in Hart Trophy discussions from late November on, and he was a finalist. Though the trophy ultimately went to Taylor Hall, most fans and fellow players saw MacKinnon as the favorite to the very end.
Seems like a pretty cut-and-dry evaluation, right?