Nathan MacKinnon's MVP Case: How Colorado's Captain Carried the Avalanche in 2025-26

Few players had a bigger regular season in 2025-26 than Nathan MacKinnon. The Colorado Avalanche center enters the Hart Trophy conversation as a finalist alongside Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov, and his numbers explain why.

A Career Year by the Numbers

MacKinnon finished the season as the NHL's leading goal scorer with 53 goals, earning the Rocket Richard Trophy. What stood out even more was where those goals came from: 42 were scored at even strength, the most in the league, a sign of just how much of Colorado's offense ran through him regardless of special teams. He also set a career high in faceoff win percentage at 51%, a notable jump from his career average of 46.8%, adding a new dimension to an already complete game.

Carrying Colorado to the League's Best Record

The Avalanche finished the regular season with the most points in the NHL, claiming the Presidents' Trophy. MacKinnon was the engine behind that run, pairing elite scoring with playmaking that kept Colorado's offense humming even when opponents keyed on stopping him.

A Familiar Face in the MVP Race

This isn't new territory for MacKinnon, who won the Hart Trophy in 2024 and has finished among the league's top scorers in back-to-back seasons. With Kucherov and McDavid both having monster years of their own, the 2025-26 Hart race is one of the closest in recent memory — but MacKinnon's blend of goal-scoring, playmaking, and two-way growth makes his case as strong as anyone's.