Lightning's Nikita Kucherov wins his 2nd Hart Trophy as the NHL's MVP

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Jun 11, 2026

Published in Hockey

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TAMPA, Fla. — A strong argument could be made that Nikita Kucherov hasn’t gotten his due for the spectacular stretch he put together the past three seasons, over which he was the league’s top point producer.

The Lightning right wing led the league in scoring the first two seasons but didn’t receive the Hart Memorial Trophy, which goes to the player deemed most valuable to his team, after either.

He didn’t win a third straight scoring title this season, mainly because he played in six fewer games than Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, who finished eight points ahead of Kucherov’s 130. Still, Kucherov led the league in points per game for the third consecutive season, his 1.71 topping McDavid’s 1.68.

Thursday, Kucherov finally won his second career Hart Trophy, beating out fellow finalists Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado and McDavid. It comes seven years after Kucherov won his first, following the Lightning’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning season in 2018-19.

Kucherov became just the 11th player in league history to win multiple Harts and multiple Stanley Cups. Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby is the only other active player to achieve the feat, and the other nine are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Hart winner is decided by a vote of select members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association based on regular-season performance. What might have separated Kucherov this season in the eyes of voters was a scoring stretch that hasn’t been seen in three decades.

Over a 50-game span from Nov. 15 to March 21, Kucherov amassed 104 points (33 goals, 71 assists), the most over any 50-game, regular-season stretch since Mario Lemieux during his 69-goal, 161-point Hart Trophy-winning season in 1995-1996.

“He’s a misunderstood genius, but he’s a fabulous player,” Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said at the end of the regular season. “And the standards are so high. The standards he sets himself are really high. The standards that the hockey world sets on him are really, really high.”

During that stretch, Kucherov carried the Lightning to a 35-13-2 record, part of a 2025-26 campaign that saw Tampa Bay overcome a litany of injuries. He produced consistently despite playing within several different line combinations. He had multiple points in 40 of his 76 games and had more games of three points or more (19) than he did games without a point (16).

“This guy does it on a daily basis,” Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel said earlier this season. He’s best in the world. He puts the time in that no one does and doesn’t care if anyone sees, never talks about it in the media that he’s on the ice, working on his game every single day. This guy played fourth-line minutes when he first came to the league, and now he’s leading the league in points on a yearly basis and continues to do it every single year. I don’t think you can name another guy like that.”

Kucherov’s 130 points were 42 more than his closest teammate — Jake Guentzel had 88 in 81 games — the second largest gap between a team’s top two scorers. San Jose’s Mackin Celebrini’s 115 points were 56 more than Will Smith’s 59.

“He just does everything at a high level and he thinks the game at a high level that we’re just lucky to watch it day in and day out, the daily grind that he puts in,” Guentzel said. “We’re lucky to play with him.”

In addition to leading the league in points per game, Kucherov ranked first in even-strength assists (57) and multi-assist games (25). He was second in assists (86), even-strength points (92) and multi-point games (40). He was third in plus-minus (plus-43) and fourth in even-strength goals (35), power-play assists (29) and multi-goal games (eight).

Combined with his 144-point season two years ago (when he finished second in Hart voting to MacKinnon), Kucherov became the 10th player in NHL history to put together multiple 130-point seasons.