MVP

Over the past 30 years, the NHL MVP award has followed somewhat of a similar pattern.  The Wayne Gretzky era started in 1980 and he pretty much owned the award until the 1990's.  From there you have a mixture of Lemieux, Messier, Hull, Lindros, Jagr, etc.  From 2000 and on we have guys like Forsberg, St Louis, Thornton, Crosby, Ovechkin x2, and Henrik Sedin.  The trend here is that all of these guys had huge offensive seasons, either winning the scoring race or coming very close to doing so.  But every now and then the NHL goes off the map such as Jose Theodore in 2002, Chris Pronger in 2000, or Dominik Hasek back to back in '97 and '98.  I feel like this is going to be one of those years.  Crosby would have run away with this trophy had he not been injured.  Stamkos has had a big year and should definitely be considered.  Daniel Sedin leads in points right now with his brother right behind him, but dont expect the league to split the trophy in half and hand it to the twins.  Tim Thomas could draw some votes, but my nomination is Ryan Kesler.  Before you Flames fans start calling me biased and a homer, just hear me out.  At the moment he sits 12th in the league in points with 57, and 2nd in goals with 33.  His +23 rating is currently 5th in the league.  The Canucks power play is ranked first in the league, and much of this can be credited to having Kesler on the first unit.  There is no one better in the league at screening the goaltender, and this is something that doesn't show up on the stat sheet.  He worked on his wrist shot in the offseason, and it has paid off big time.  I have never seen someone cover as much ice as Kesler, as he is aggressive on the attack but is still always the first guy back on the backcheck.  But don't let Kesler's offensive numbers fool you; he made a name for himself in this league as a checker and the defensive aspect of his game is perhaps the best part.  He is without question Vancouver's best penalty killer, and is very dangerous shorthanded.  He was nominated for the Selke award for the past 2 seasons, and is certainly playing at the same level defensively this year.  Although he is not the captain, he is the emotional leader of the Canucks who are currently at the top of the Western Conference.  He really does it all, and is truly a complete player.  Right now I cannot think of anyone who is more valuable to his team than Ryan Kesler, which is what the MVP award is supposed to be all about.