Pastrnak and Swayman Earn Hart Trophy Votes

The Boston Bruins’ 2025-26 season was a roller coaster from start to finish. For some, the expectations were always going to be a playoff run. For others, the idea of a playoff run seemed far-fetched given the makeup of the roster. It’s unsurprising, then, that two of the biggest reasons for the Bruins’ success both received Hart Trophy votes, awarded annually to the NHL’s most valuable player. Without David Pastrnak and Jeremy Swayman, the Bruins likely aren’t a 100-point playoff team.

For anybody keeping track of the Bruins over the past few seasons, it’s been very clear that Pastrnak is somehow simultaneously acknowledged as one of the league’s best players but also still criminally underrated. Few players in the NHL are as responsible for their team’s success as Pastrnak has been for the Bruins, even with the team missing the postseason last year in what was ultimately a retooling year.

Pastrnak Leading the Way for the Bruins

Pastrnak has scored 30 goals in eight of the last 10 seasons. In the two seasons he missed the mark, one was the 2020-21 season in which he’d score 20 goals in 48 games in a COVID-19-shortened campaign. The other was this past season when he scored 29 goals in 77 games. Even more impressive is that Pastrnak scored over 40 goals five times in six seasons, including the 2020-21 season, and also including a career-best 61 goals in 2022-23. His four consecutive 100-point seasons since 2022-23 are further proof of just how dominant he’s been offensively.

This season, the 30-year-old wore a few different hats and continued to show off his playmaking abilities like never before. Though he’s long been one of the NHL’s premier goal-scorers, his playmaking has been improving drastically for some time and it was capped off with an impressive 71 assists in 2025-26. Anybody who plays alongside Pastrnak benefits from his ability to create offense and generate scoring opportunities on a shift-by-shift basis.

For his efforts, Pastrnak received one third-place vote, 11 fourth-place votes and 4 fifth-place votes for the Hart Trophy, putting him sixth in total points.

Swayman didn’t receive quite the same recognition as Pastrnak, but he did still receive two fifth-place votes, leaving him tied for 18th in the league in Hart Trophy voting.

Swayman’s Bounce-Back Season Recognized in Award Voting

Swayman’s case for Hart Trophy consideration begins with the impact he had on the Bruins’ season beyond his traditional statistics. In 55 appearances, the Bruins netminder posted a 31-18-4 record, setting a new career-high in wins. He finished tied for fourth in the NHL with 19 wins at home and led all goaltenders with 38 games featuring a save percentage of .900 or better. At even strength, Swayman was one of the league’s most effective goalies, tying for second among netminders with at least 10 appearances with a .923 save percentage.

His impressive play earned him recognition as one of the NHL’s best goaltenders, with the Bruins netminder finishing third in Vezina Trophy voting behind only Andrei Vasilevskiy and Ilya Sorokin.

Perhaps the strongest evidence of Swayman’s value comes from his goals saved above expected (GSAx). While his 2.71 goals-against average and .908 save percentage may not stand out compared to some past Vezina-award-winning seasons, league-wide scoring trends have made strong goaltending numbers harder to achieve. Swayman’s 28.8 GSAx ranked second in the NHL, trailing only Logan Thompson, highlighting just how many goals he prevented relative to an average goaltender facing the same quality of chances.

It was a huge bounce-back season for Swayman and it masked one of the Bruins’ most glaring weaknesses on a nightly basis. A team that usually hangs its hat on defensive accountability, the Bruins’ defensive unit struggled for much of the season. He was never a realistic threat to win the Hart Trophy, but the fact that he received votes at all speaks to just how important he was to the Bruins’ success. Without Swayman delivering one of the league’s best bounce-back seasons, the Bruins likely aren’t talking about a 100-point season or a playoff berth.