LAS VEGAS -- Avalanche C Nathan MacKinnon was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player of the 2023-24 NHL season at the league’s annual awards show last night in Las Vegas. MacKinnon also received the Ted Lindsay Award as the most outstanding player as voted by his peers. MacKinnon is represented by CAA Sports. His brand partners include Fanatics, Upper Deck, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons and Canadian sports drink brand Cwench Hydration.
Other award recipients included Jets G Connor Hellebuyck (Vezina Trophy for best goalie), Canucks D Quinn Hughes (Norris Trophy for best defenseman) and Blackhawks C Connor Bedard(Calder Trophy for rookie of the year).
Comedian Matt Friend, who hosted the hourlong program airing on ESPN and Sportsnet, didn’t hold back during his opening monologue, joking there were more people in attendance at the Fontainebleau for the awards show "than watched the Arizona Coyotes all season” and poking fun at the perception of NHL players as stoic and humorless. The latter proved prescient, as MacKinnon, Bedard and Lightning RW Nikita Kucheroveach lacked enthusiasm during what were supposed to be lighthearted bits with Friend throughout the show.
Other presenters included ESPN broadcaster John Buccigross, Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, Fallout Boy frontman Pete Wentz, “SNL” comedian Jay Pharoah and actors Gaten Matarazzo (“Stranger Things”) and Noah LaLonde (“My Life with the Walter Boys”). The program also included a tribute to The Athletic reporter Aaron Portzline, a Blue Jackets beat writer recovering from a kidney transplant, and his donor, Blue Jackets Corporate Communications Specialist Lindy Noel.
