'It Will Take An Anomaly': Chris Pronger On When Next NHL Defenseman Will Win The Hart Trophy

Since 2000, no NHL defenseman has won or even been a finalist for the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player. The last to take home the hardware, Chris Pronger, has his theories as to why even the best blueliners come up short in voting for the Hart. In the long and storied history of the Hart Memorial Trophy, which is awarded annually to the NHL's most-valuable regular-season player, a pattern has emerged. And if you're a defenseman in hockey’s top league, that pattern isn't a good one. It's been more than a quarter century since a D-man has been honored with the award. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Chris Pronger, who was the last blueliner to win it back in 2000, has his theories why."It's not as sexy to be a defenseman," Pronger told They Hockey News' Michael Traikos on the latest episode of The Big Show. "You're never going to have 50 goals, 60 goals, you're never going to get 140-150 points. Maybe, but if you're getting 140-150, then someone's getting 200-250 (points). Related stories"There's always the barometer of who you're up against. And in some cases, you're going up against someone on your team. If you're able to do that, then someone on your team is having a career year as well."For the members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association who vote on the award, there's a clear tendency to give their vote to players who fill the scoresheet with goals and assists – and that doesn't traditionally favor blueliners.Since Pronger took home the Hart as a member of the St. Louis Blues with a career-high 62 points in the NHL's 'Dead Puck Era', no defenseman has even been a finalist for the award. In 2007-08, Detroit Red Wings icon Nicklas Lidstrom finished fourth in Hart balloting, while in 2016-17, star D-man Brent Burns finished fourth in Hart voting as a member of the San Jose Sharks. Even Colorado Avalanche superstar Cale Makar, who scored 30 goals and finished with 92 points in 2024-25, finished sixth in votes. A 101-point campaign from Erik Karlsson in 2022-23 was only good enough to finish 15th in voting (hide your eyes from his -26 plus/minus rating).But Pronger told Traikos that, in his estimation, sometimes Hart voting comes down to the simple fact that media members bring their own biases into the process."The media, sometimes they like you and sometimes they don't," Pronger said. "Sometimes they have an affinity for a certain type of player. Sometimes it's somebody's turn, which I've heard a number of times. And sometimes the vote gets split or they don't see you enough."The year I won, it was a little bit of an anomaly in the sense that Jagr would have probably won had he not been injured…The Pittsburgh writer who voted for me had (Jagr in the second spot) because he missed (19) games. So he didn't play a full year. "I played 82 games and I think he played (63) games… So (the writer) was like, 'You missed almost a quarter of the season, so how can I vote that you're the MVP of the league when you missed a quarter?' There's always a number of factors, and in a lot of players' cases it's who they're up against."If there was ever a time for this trend to change, it would be now."It will take an anomaly and an off-year maybe for forwards in their scoring, and a defenseman to have an all-world year," Pronger said. "That (1999-2000 season) obviously was the best year of my career from a statistical standpoint. Maybe not the best that I've played. But from a statistical standpoint, it certainly was.“Having the type of year that we had as a team too, winning the Presidents' Trophy, there was a lot of things that checked the box. Craig Conroy was up for the Selke that year. Our goalies won the Jennings. We had three or four guys who were up for awards, so we had an incredible regular season, which played a lot into it."For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free.