The Tampa Bay Lightning had high hopes for a long run in the postseason this year as they received brilliant seasons from high-scoring Nikita Kucherov and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. Those hopes were dashed when they lost in the seventh game of the first round to the Montreal Canadiens. Despite that loss, Kucherov won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player for his production during the 2025-26 regular season.
Kucherov finished second in the NHL in scoring to Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers. Nevertheless, Kucherov won his second MVP award after scoring 44 goals and 86 assists for 130 points.
Kucherov received 72 first-place votes and he had 1,436 voting points. That gave him a 10-point edge over McDavid. Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche finished third in the voting with 1,297 points.
Kucherov joined Vasilevskiy in winning postseason honors for the Lightning. Vasilevskiy was named the winner of the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best regular-season goalie earlier in the week.
Kucherov and Vasilevskiy became the first teammates to secure the Hart-Vezina double since Guy LaFleur and Ken Dryden accomplished the feat for the Canadiens in 1976-77 and again the following year in 1977-78.
The Canadiens also won the Stanley Cup in both of those seasons, and the 76-77 Habs are often recognized as the greatest team in NHL history. They had a 60-8-12 regular-season record and they rolled through the postseason by winning 12 of 14 games, including sweeps of the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins.
Kucherov also won the Hart Trophy in 2018-19 when he scored 128 points. He has scored 113 points or more for the Lightning in each of the last four seasons.
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