Nikita Kucherov is the best hockey player in the world right now.
It’s been thrown around this season, but the National Hockey League Players’ Association and the Professional Hockey Writers Association have voted and declared him both the most outstanding and most valuable player in the league. Kucherov won both the Ted Lindsay Award (most outstanding, voted by the players) and the Hart Trophy (MVP, voted by the hockey writers) Wednesday night.
Both awards seemed obvious. When your name is joined with the likes of Mario Lemieux, you get awards.
To recap: Kucherov recorded 128 points this year, the most since Lemieux (161) and Jaromir Jagr (149) in the 1995-96 season.