Connor McDavid is keeping himself in the Hart Trophy running

The Edmonton Oilers defeated the San Jose Sharks 5-2 Wednesday night, with Connor McDavid factoring in on all five Edmonton goals, finishing with three goals and two assists.

McDavid, who leads the league with 133 points, is on pace to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s top point producer for the sixth time. But with Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov and Sharks’ forward Macklin Celebrini having major impacts on the success of their respective clubs, there’s plenty of competition in the Hart Trophy race.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss McDavid’s recent hot streak and if the Oilers’ captain has a chance at winning the Hart Trophy for a fourth time.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Connor McDavid is -1000 to win the Art Ross, and he’s moved up to +300 to win the Hart Trophy. The odds in order go: MacKinnon, Kucherov, McDavid and Celebrini. The only case for McDavid, if I had to make one, I don’t know if it would go to #97 this year. I think it might go to Kucherov if the Sharks miss the playoffs.

But since Leon Draisaitl got hurt: in the 11 games McDavid has been without him, he’s got 10 goals and nine assists for 19 points. The Oilers only have 37 goals in that stretch. He’s been factoring in on basically 50% of the offense. They’re 7-3-1 since losing Leon and they’re in the driver’s seat to win the division.

That right there is McDavid’s MVP case, right? When the games got bigger at the end of the year and they lost Leon Draisaitl and all the attention goes to “how they can survive without #29?” McDavid reminded everyone that he’s more than capable of carrying this team on his own.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…