What We Learned: MVP candidates abound, but who makes the cut?

It is hardly interesting to talk about who is going to win the Hart and Ted Lindsay trophies as the league's most valuable and most outstanding player.

Connor McDavid, who is on pace for nearly 70 goals and 150-plus points on a team that isn't particularly good, is going to win those awards in a walk. Even if the Edmonton Oilers miss the playoffs, which is the kind of thing some particularly dim awards voters use as a qualification. There's no question here: Barring season-ending injury, McDavid is walking away with those two awards, and he'd still get plenty of fourth- or fifth-place votes if he didn't play another game this season.

Instead, the awards intrigue is around the two other guys who will find themselves finalists for these awards, because there are legitimately four or five guys