Nathan MacKinnon is becoming the face of the NHL

Okay. It’s going to be like that.

For the second time in three years, Nathan MacKinnon lost a very close vote to finish second place in the Hart Trophy voting. 20 voters put MacKinnon in fourth or fifth place and two voters left him out of the top five entirely.

After losing to Taylor Hall predominantly behind the argument of having too productive of teammates, MacKinnon, who finished with 43 more points than his next closest teammate (Calder Trophy winner Cale Makar, mind you) fell behind Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, the league’s top two scorers on numerous ballots, five of which had the Edmonton Oiler duo finishing first and second.

Okay, so a Colorado athlete is getting jobbed out of a major award. I can already hear Drew Creasman from the DNVR Rockies corner of the world as he laughs that deep laugh of understanding.

But you look at the top vote-getters and wonder: Where are they now? Of the players who finished in the top 10 of Hart voting (11 players because Evgeni Malkin and Auston Matthews tied at 10), exactly three of them went beyond the first round of the playoffs.

Those players are David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand of Boston and…MacKinnon. The Bruins went quietly in Round Two, the same round MacKinnon’s Avalanche went out of the postseason for the second straight season.

The difference is MacKinnon is third in postseason scoring. Right now. After two games into the Stanley Cup Finals, MacKinnon’s 25 postseason points are still good for third place. He hasn’t played since September 4. He hasn’t scored since September 2.

What point am I trying to make with all of this?

Somewhere along the way, through the comical voting of some (seriously how can Draisaitl AND McDavid both be the league’s most valuable players on a team that was fifth in the West?) and the evisceration of the scoresheet, Nathan MacKinnon has slowly emerged as the new face of the NHL as the leader of the still-ascending Avalanche.

No player makes the social media scene blow up in awe quite like MacKinnon. Good luck finding someone who doesn’t at the very least appreciate the awe-inspiring gifts MacKinnon brings to the table.

While he scored a string of seconds this year in the awards ceremony, including in voting for the Ted Lindsay (MVP voted on by the players) and as center of the NHL Second All-Star Team, where he finished ahead of everyone else was in a very real takeover of the league.

For three straight years, he’s scored more than 90 points in the regular season, which is harder to accomplish than you may think. Consider that’s something neither Joe Sakic nor Peter Forsberg ever accomplished in their Avalanche careers (Sakic did it with the Nordiques, however).

That success has translated to the postseason, as well, where we all know a player’s legacy is truly made. With 54 points in 40 career playoff games, MacKinnon has a 1.35 points-per-game average, which is good for third among players with at least 40 games played.

That’s third all time. The only players he trails right now are Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. He’s also already scored two overtime game-winners, something Lemieux never accomplished and is half of what Gretzky did.

What we’re witnessing is truly special and is still in its infancy.

There’s no doubt there’s more mountain for MacKinnon to climb to be considered one of the all-time greats. He needs to successfully drink the nectar of the gods from the ultimate chalice, the Stanley Cup (the real Holy Grail). He probably needs to win a Conn Smythe along the way, too.

While McDavid and Draisaitl fight it out for the spotlight in Edmonton’s annual battle to make the postseason, MacKinnon’s star has simply exceeded both. Winning does that.

With the NHL returning to the Olympics, he’ll be a favorite to capture a medal of some kind whenever he represents Canada (which will be until he retires, I imagine).

If he’s able to accomplish all of the above, there will still be an appreciation for names like Hart, Ted Lindsay, and Art Ross. He might even actually win one someday.

Years down the road when all of the current players are long retired and we’re reminiscing about this era of the NHL, we will wax poetic about superstars like McDavid, Draisaitl, Kucherov, Pastrnak, Panarin, and the outrageous defenders of this generation.

But there’s one name that’s set himself up to be remembered best among them all:

MacKinnon.