Hart Trophy odds 2027: the NHL MVP market

Hart Trophy odds are the headline individual market in hockey, and the 2026 vote is the cleanest lesson in how it works. Connor McDavid won the scoring title with 138 points. Nathan MacKinnon led the league in goals on its best team. Nikita Kucherov won the Hart. The award goes to the player judged most valuable to his team, which is not the same thing as the best player or the top scorer, and that gap is where the betting value sits. This page carries the opening 2026-27 board, ten years of winners with the odds they opened at, how the voting works and what the writers actually reward. Our awards hub covers the other trophies.

Hart Trophy odds 2026-27: the NHL MVP odds board

This is the opening board: prices from Bet99, taken on 29 July 2026, two months before the season started. MVP futures move with the scoring race from October, so these will have moved since; read them as the opening shape of the market and check the live price with your sportsbook before you bet. For the race itself, our NHL scoring leaders page tracks the points and goals leaders, updated daily.

Prices from Bet99, 29 July 2026. American odds; a +350 price returns $350 in profit on a $100 stake if it wins. NHL Hart Trophy odds are offered by the private sportsbooks licensed in Ontario and Alberta, and on a narrower basis by the provincial lottery operators elsewhere.

The Hart race as it stands

Live section, rebuilt 22 October 2026. The prices higher up this page are the opening market and carry their own date.

Voting closes at the end of the regular season. The board above is a long way from settled. This is the scoring race as it stands, which is where the Hart conversation starts.

Connor McDavid leads on 26 points from 9 games. That is 8 clear of Jack Eichel. Leads this early rest on small samples. They rarely survive to April untouched.

The Hart goes to the most valuable player, not the top scorer. A goaltender or a defenceman on a weak club has a case no points table shows. Read the hart trophy odds above with that in mind.

Odds movement: what the opening board says

McDavid is favourite, as he has been every summer for a decade, and the case for him is the same as ever: the best player in the world, coming off a scoring title he won by eight points. The case against him is in the standings. Edmonton finished 14th in the league last season and the voters did not reward 138 points on a team that barely made the playoffs. MacKinnon at +350 has the opposite profile, a 53-goal season on the club that finished first overall, and he did not win either.

Celebrini at +640 is the new name. He scored 115 points at 20 for a San Jose team that finished 24th, and the market is pricing what happens if the Sharks make the playoffs. Kucherov at +1200 is the defending winner priced as a longshot, which is where defending winners belong in this market: nobody has repeated since Ovechkin in 2009. Auston Matthews at +1500 is the only Canadian-club player inside +2000 on this board, and Toronto finished 28th, so his price is about the player rather than the team.

Ten years of Hart Trophy winners and their opening odds

Opening prices are the pre-season numbers each winner was available at, as recorded by odds-history archives. Taylor Hall’s 2018 Hart Trophy with New Jersey came with no recorded pre-season price at all.

Two patterns matter. First, the trophy is concentrated: McDavid and Kucherov have won five of the last ten between them, so the shortlist really is short. Second, the price is not. One winner in ten opened as the favourite, McDavid at +300 in 2023. Four of the other nine were available at +900 or longer in September, including Hellebuyck at +15000, the longest recorded winner in the award’s history, and Draisaitl at +4000. Back a short list at long prices rather than one name at +250.

The 2026 vote: three cases, one winner

The 2026 Hart Trophy finalists were the same three players as in 2024, and each made a different argument.

• Connor McDavid, Edmonton. 138 points on 48 goals and 90 assists in 82 games, the Art Ross Trophy by eight points, on a team that finished 14th on 93 points.
• Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado. 127 points and a league-leading 53 goals, with a plus-57 rating that was also the best in the NHL, on the team that finished first overall with 121 points.
• Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay. 130 points on 44 goals and 86 assists in 76 games, the league’s best rate at 1.71 points a game, on a team that finished fifth with 106 points.

The voters took the middle case. Not the scoring leader on a middling team, not the best team’s best player, but the player whose production per game was highest on a genuine contender. That is the Hart in one sentence, and it is why the odds board and the scoring race are not the same list.

What the voters actually reward

Three things decide this award. Production near the top of the scoring race gets a player into the conversation. Team success decides whether he stays in it: a top-ten finish is close to a requirement, and 2026 showed that 14th is not enough even for 138 points. And availability matters more than bettors expect. The writers are reluctant to hand the award to a player who missed a chunk of the season, whatever his rate, so a candidate trading short while carrying an injury history is usually a price to lay.

Position is the quiet filter. Centres have won 55 Harts, right wings 19, left wings 13, goaltenders nine and defencemen seven. Six of the last ten went to centres. The last defenceman to win was Chris Pronger in 2000, which is why Makar sits at +2500 with two Norris Trophies, and a goaltender wins roughly once a decade: Carey Price in 2015, then Hellebuyck in 2025. A goalie only takes the Hart when his team would clearly be nowhere without him.

How Hart Trophy voting works

The Professional Hockey Writers Association votes at the end of the regular season, before the playoffs begin, so postseason play has no bearing on the result. Each voter lists five players in order, weighted 10, 7, 5, 3 and 1 points. The three finalists are announced during the playoffs and the winner in June at the NHL Awards. The ballot rewards breadth of support: a player who sits second on most ballots can beat one who is first on a few and missing from the rest. A separate award, the Ted Lindsay, is voted by the players and often goes elsewhere.

What is the Hart Trophy?

The Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded to the player judged most valuable to his team during the regular season. It has been presented since 1924, when Frank Nighbor of the original Ottawa Senators won the first one, and it is named for Cecil Hart, the long-time Montréal Canadiens coach and manager whose father donated the original trophy. The current trophy replaced the original in 1960. Wayne Gretzky won it nine times, including eight in a row from 1980 to 1987, and Gordie Howe is next with six.

Hart Trophy records worth knowing

• Most wins: Wayne Gretzky, nine. Gordie Howe, six. Eddie Shore, four.
• Most among players active last season: Connor McDavid and Alex Ovechkin, three each. McDavid’s came in 2017, 2021 and 2023.
• Last repeat winner: Ovechkin in 2008 and 2009. Nobody has defended the trophy since.
• Last defenceman: Chris Pronger, St. Louis, 2000. Seven defencemen have won it in total.
• Goaltenders: nine winners, most recently Connor Hellebuyck in 2025 and Carey Price in 2015.
• Longest recorded price to win: Hellebuyck at +15000 in 2024-25.
• Hart and Cup in the same season: last done by Martin St. Louis of Tampa Bay in 2004.

How to bet the Hart market

1. Fade the summer favourite. One winner in ten opened favourite. Two or three names at +600 to +1500 have beaten one at +250 in nine of the last ten years.
2. Fade the defending winner. Kucherov at +1200 is the market saying the same: no repeat since 2009.
3. Filter by team before you filter by talent. Ask whether the club finishes top ten. If not, the points will not be enough. McDavid’s 138 in 2026 is the proof.
4. Watch games played, not just rate. A candidate who misses fifteen games rarely wins, however good the per-game numbers look.
5. Re-check at American Thanksgiving. By late November the standings and the scoring race have both settled, and the eventual winner is often still available at a longer price than in September.
6. Hold the stake in mind. Money is tied up until June. Our futures betting guide covers how that affects sizing.

The Norris market shares this electorate and rewards a different profile, which is why defencemen rarely cross over. Conn Smythe odds open in April and follow the playoffs instead. Where these futures are legal in your province is set out on our NHL betting hub, and official voting results are published by NHL.com.

Frequently asked questions

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