Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov won his second Hart Trophy as the NHL's MVP on Thursday in an extremely close race against Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid and Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon.
Kucherov, 32, was listed in the top five on 196 of 198 ballots and received 72 first-place votes. That gave him 1,436 points -- 10 more than McDavid (1,426 points), who was a top five pick on all 198 ballots, including 68 first-place votes. MacKinnon (1,297 points) was listed on 195 ballots, collecting 52 first-place votes.
The 10-point winning margin made this the third-closest vote in 30 years, behind Montreal goalie Jose Theodore's win over Calgary's Jarome Iginla in 2001-02 -- a 434-434 tie, with Theodore earning more first-place votes -- and the one-point win by St. Louis defenseman Chris Pronger over Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr in 1999-2000.
For the first time since the current points allocation system was established in 1995-96, all three finalists received at least 25% of all first-place votes for the Hart, which is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Kucherov, McDavid and MacKinnon have combined to win the NHL MVP five times in the past eight seasons.
Finishing fourth in the voting was 19-year-old San Jose Sharks star Macklin Celebrini.
Kucherov, who first won the award in 2019, had 44 goals and 86 assists for 130 points in 76 games this season -- including 104 points in a 50-game span and 42 more than his closest teammate -- and led the NHL with 1.71 points per game.
He was second in the NHL scoring race and in assists to McDavid, who had 138 points and 90 assists in 82 games.
Kucherov also was eighth in goals scored (44) and his plus-43 was tied for third in the league.
"One of the great things that makes Kuch 'Kuch' is that he's never satisfied," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "He could have 50 goals one year, and he wants to score 51 the next year. I think the growth of Kuch is that he doesn't put that above the team."
Difference maker. pic.twitter.com/k3ev4CVEm6
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) June 11, 2026
Kucherov helped Tampa Bay to 106 points and second place in the Atlantic Division. He was the latest member of the Lightning to collect NHL postseason hardware. Andrei Vasilevskiy won his second Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender and Cooper won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year for the first time.
This season marked the first time since 1976-77 that members of the same organization captured those three awards. That year, the Canadiens' Guy Lafleur (Hart), Ken Dryden and Michel Larocque (Vezina) and Scotty Bowman (Jack Adams) won those awards, with Larry Robinson adding the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman.
In was the third year in a row that Kucherov had been a finalist for the Hart after he finished third in the voting last season and second in 2023-24. He is the third player to have gone at least seven years between wins, joining Montreal's Jean Beliveau (eight years) and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby (seven years).
