Hall named MVP, McDavid outstanding

Vegas has another big night as Gallant, McPhee, Karlsson win honours

LAS VEGAS— Taylor Hall won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player for the 2017-18 season.

The 26-year-old New Jersey Devils winger beat out Colorado Avalanche centre Nathan MacKinnon and Los Angeles Kings centre Anze Kopitar for the honour at Wednesday’s awards show in Las Vegas.

Hall led the Devils with 39 goals and 54 assists and a plus-14 defensive rating in 76 games played. He was sixth in NHL scoring.

The Hart is selected by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.

But Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid beat out Hall for the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the league’s most outstanding player as selected by his peers. McDavid, who won both awards a year ago, led the NHL in scoring with 108 points.

It was a big night for the ex- pansion Vegas Golden Knights in their hometown as Gerard Gallant won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year and George McPhee was named the NHL’s top general manager.

Vegas stunned the hockey world this season by finishing with 109 points to top the Pacific Division before making it all the way to the Stanley Cup final.

Gallant beat out Boston’s Bruce Cassidy and Colorado’s Jared Bednar. McPhee topped Winnipeg counterpart Kevin Cheveldayoff and Tampa Bay’s Steve Yzerman.

Knights centre William Karlsson won the Lady Byng Trophy as the NHL’s most gentlemanly player ahead of Buffalo’s Ryan O’Reilly and Florida’s Aleksander Barkov. Karlsson had 43 goals and 12 penalty minutes.

Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne won his first Vezina Trophy as the top goalie. A finalist for the fourth time, Rinne, 35, beat out Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.

New York Islanders centre Mathew Barzal, who led all first-year players with 85 points, won the Calder Trophy as top rookie, the Lightning’s Victor Hedman won his first Norris Trophy as the best defencemen and Kopitar won his second Selke Trophy as the top defensive forward.

Surviving members of the Humboldt Broncos were on hand to accept the inaugural Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award on behalf of their head coach, Darcy Haugan, who was one of 16 people killed when the team’s bus collided with a truck while en route to a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game on April 6.