The Latest: Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov wins Hart Trophy
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the NHL Awards show (all times local):
7:20 p.m.
Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning has won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player.
The Russian right wing won the award for the first time after his prolific 128-point regular season. He beat out two-time MVP Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh and 2017 Hart winner Connor McDavid.
Kucherov, who turned 26 on Monday, also won the Ted Lindsay Award as the league's outstanding player as selected by his fellow players.
A year after scoring 100 points, Kucherov emerged as a dominant NHL forward for the powerhouse Lightning. He won the Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in scoring with a career-best 41 goals and 87 assists.
He tied Jaromir Jagr's NHL record for assists by a wing, and he surpassed Alexander Mogilny's single-season record for points by a Russian-born player. His 128 points were the most by any NHL player since 1996 — and the Lightning coincidentally also had 128 points in the standings, also the most by any team since 1996.
