Rangers’ Lundqvist has shot at netting NHL’s MVP award

With 21 winners over the past 80 years, a major league pitcher is more apt to claim a Most Valuable Player award than an NHL goaltender is to take home a Hart Trophy.

Only six goalies have captured hockey's MVP award in the past 87 seasons.

New York Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist could become the seventh - and only third since 1962 - today when the NHL Awards take place at 4 p.m. at Wynn Las Vegas' Encore Theater.

Lundqvist, who compiled career bests in wins (39), goals-against average (1.97) and save percentage (.930) this season, is a finalist for the Hart alongside Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (league-high 109 points) and Lightning center Steven Stamkos (league-leading 60 goals).

"It was kind of a shock to be (nominated)," Lundqvist said. "It's pretty cool to be up there with those guys and that award."

Lundqvist also is a finalist, along with Malkin and Stamkos, for the Ted Lindsay Award - which is presented to the league's most outstanding player, as voted by the NHL Players' Association - and the Vezina Trophy, which is awarded to the league's best goalie, with the Kings' Jonathan Quick and the Predators' Pekka Rinne.

"Winning the Vezina, it's been a goal and a dream for me for a long time," the 30-year-old Lundqvist said. "I'm up against two really good goalies. It will be tough."

It's the fourth time Lundqvist has been a finalist for the Vezina. He finished third in the voting three straight years, from 2006 to 2008.

Of course, Lundqvist, who helped his native Sweden win an Olympic gold medal in 2006, would gladly forgo any individual awards for a Stanley Cup title.

While the Los Angeles Kings recently claimed their first NHL crown in 45 years, "King Henrik" has yet to hoist the Cup.

He said winning an award today wouldn't ease the pain of the Rangers' loss to the rival New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals.

"That will still hurt as much," he said. "But now we're at a point where we'll try to learn something from it and use it as motivation for next year and the training in the summer to try to get better. We want to go even further next year."

Lundqvist, who has won at least 30 games in all seven of his seasons for New York, compiled comparable numbers to the last two goalies to win the Hart: Jose Theodore in 2002 and Dominik Hasek in 1997 and 1998.

"It's usually an offensive category," Stamkos said of the Hart. "That shows the type of year (Lundqvist) had and the respect he has around the league to be nominated. He's a great goalie."

Stamkos became the 20th player in NHL history to score 60 goals, reaching the mark in his final game to cap a run of 10 goals in his last nine games. He finished with 97 points, second to Malkin, who tallied 50 goals and 59 assists for the Penguins, who were without captain Sidney Crosby for most of the season.

"He was unbelievable this year," Lundqvist said of Malkin, who has already won the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer.

■ NOTES - A dozen awards will be presented today by actors Ray Liotta, Vince Vaughn and Matthew Perry, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews and others. The red carpet at the Encore Esplanade at XS Nightclub will be open to the public starting at 2:15 p.m.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.