After leading the Colorado Avalanche to their third Stanley Cup in 2022, Nathan MacKinnon became the team’s third winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy in 2024. The 28-year-old forward took home both of hockey’s Most Valuable Player awards, winning the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award after putting up a franchise record 140 points. It was easily the best season of his sparkling career so far, and included a 35-game point streak at home.
What is MacKinnon going to do for his next act? If he is like the other two Hart Trophy winners from the Avalanche’s past, he might be in for a dip in production. Joe Sakic won the award in 2001 and Peter Forsberg won it two years later for the Avs. Neither of those two was able to quite recover the magic from their MVP campaigns. Here’s a look at all of those MVP-winning campaigns, and how MacKinnon can avoid a slump after winning the Hart Trophy.
MacKinnon’s Magical Season
To say that MacKinnon’s 2023-24 season was magical isn’t fair. It was the best offensive season in the history of the franchise. Most notably, his 140 points were the most in a season in franchise history, edging Peter Stastny’s 139 points in 1981-82 – a much higher-scoring and high-flying era by almost every standard. Not only was it just the eighth time a Quebec Nordiques or Avalanche player tallied a 50-goal season, but MacKinnon’s 89 assists were also the second most in a season in franchise history.
There was more magic in how he accomplished all of those numbers. It started with three points on opening night and almost never slowed down. His longest stretch all season was three games without a point – and he had only one other instance where he went two games without a point. Other than that, scoring was just an every night thing. He was the first to post two separate 19-game scoring streaks in the same season in NHL history, and his 35-game home point streak was the second longest in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky’s 40-game stretch in 1988-89.
Related: MacKinnon’s Home Streak Was a Thing of Beauty for Avalanche
MacKinnon has gotten better pretty much every season, including those that were impacted by COVID. His last two campaigns have been nothing short of incredible, as he’s posted 251 points in 151 games over that span. He has set career bests in goals and assists in each of the last two seasons, and there’s little reason to think one of the hardest-charging players in the league is going to slow down anytime soon. However, two of Colorado’s all-time greats weren’t immune to that decline after winning hockey’s most esteemed individual award.
Sakic Slows After Hart Win
Sakic is widely regarded as the greatest Avalanche player of all time – even if MacKinnon is doing his best to catch him. After 20 years with the franchise, he’s the all-time leader in every meaningful statistic. His 625 goals, 1,016 assists, and 1,641 points make him not only a notable Avs superstar, but one of the greats in NHL history. Along with two Stanley Cups, Sakic notably won the Hart Trophy in 2001 after a career-best 54 goals. His 118 points were just two away from his previous career high set in the 1995-96 campaign.
However, Sakic’s production waned a bit following that season. He eclipsed 90 points just once (100 points in 2006-07) over the next five seasons before disappearing over his final two campaigns. The Avalanche notably won their second Stanley Cup in his Hart Trophy-winning season, and he led the way with 26 points in the team’s 21 playoff games. Sakic-led teams advanced past the second round of the playoffs just once after that memorable season.
Related: What Joe Sakic Means to the Avalanche
It’s not that Sakic turned into a bad player. He was still very effective. He made three more All-Star Games after winning the Hart Trophy, and played more than 80 games four times. He still averaged 1.06 points per game over those final seven seasons of his career, but that was a big drop from the 1.26 he enjoyed over his first 13 seasons. Sakic will always be one of the all-time greats, and he was 31 years old when he won the award, but there was a bit of a slip in production after winning it.
Forsberg’s Last Quality Season
Forsberg took home the Hart Trophy in 2003, capping off a ridiculous season where he led the NHL in assists (77), points (106), and plus/minus (plus-52). He had to pick up the slack for an injured Sakic, who missed 24 games. Forsberg went back-to-back games without a point just twice that season, and had 11 games where he scored at least three points. He had two hat tricks in 2003, and two five-assist games. Colorado was heartbroken in the playoffs, losing to the Minnesota Wild in seven games. The Wild won Games 6 and 7 in overtime, and Forsberg scored in every contest except Game 1 and had eight points in the series.
At age 29, that season was the last good one of Forsberg’s Hall of Fame career. Following that campaign, he never scored more than 75 points or played in 60 games in a season again. He had brief stints with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Nashville Predators after leaving Colorado after the 2003-04 season. He returned to the Avalanche for the 2007-08 season, but played in just nine games. He tried to come back again in 2010-11, but that stint lasted just two games.
Related: Peter Forsberg: A Look Back at a Storied NHL Career
Forsberg is clearly one of the most important players ever to wear an Avalanche uniform. He’s still in the top 10 for the Avalanche in career goals (217), assists (538), and points (755), and that’s why his jersey hangs in the rafters of Ball Arena right next to Sakic’s. MacKinnon’s jersey will obviously be hanging up there someday, too. The only question that remains is how MacKinnon responds after winning the biggest individual award of his career. The team’s current superstar looks like he’s not done yet, and hopefully, he can kick the mini-curse that befell the other Avalanche players to reach that mountaintop – since he’s younger than either Sakic or Forsberg were when they won the award.
This will be a big season for MacKinnon, as star linemate Mikko Rantanen enters the last year of his contract, and familiar linemate Gabriel Landeskog could potentially return following knee surgery. Add in high-powered defensemen like Cale Makar, and the Avs should still be one of the highest-scoring teams in the league again. The best thing MacKinnon has going for him is his work ethic and style of play. He’s going to keep charging forward until the wheels fall off, and every indication says that his work ethic isn’t diminishing anytime soon. If Colorado can keep this group together, MacKinnon might become the first Avs player to win two Hart Trophies. Things may have unexpectedly slowed a bit for the other Avs greats, but MacKinnon looks like he has a lot of fuel left in the tank.
