Conn Smythe Watch after Round 1: Mikko Rantanen tops the ranking
-
Greg Wyshynski
With one round in the books and eight teams sent home, the race for Stanley Cup playoffs MVP is starting to come into focus.
That focus is currently on one player who set a handful of records with his Game 7 heroism.
Here’s the first Conn Smythe Watch of the 2025 postseason. Keep in mind that in the NHL, the Conn Smythe is based on a player’s performance during the entire postseason, not just the championship round. The award is voted on by an 18-person panel of Professional Hockey Writers Association members.
We polled more than a dozen writers who are still on the beat in the playoffs for the Conn Smythe Trophy top three.
Here’s a look at some of the current leaders for MVP honors, as well as players on the cusp of breaking through in the Conn Smythe race.
The current MVP
The “Revenge Tour” against his former team the Colorado Avalanche wrapped up in spectacular fashion with 11 points in the last three games of the series (five goals, six assists). That included his third-period hat trick — along with an assist on Wyatt Johnston‘s game-tying goal with less than four minutes remaining in regulation — in the Stars’ Game 7 win.
Rantanen is the first player in NHL history to record four-point periods in back-to-back games in the regular season or the playoffs. He’s the first player to score a third-period hat trick in a Game 7. He’s also the first player with at least 10 points in Games 5 through 7 in a series. Overall, Rantanen has 12 points through seven games.
GM Jim Nill handed Rantanen an eight-year, $96 million contract extension after acquiring him from the Carolina Hurricanes for his regular-season dominance (705 points in 652 career games) and his reputation as a clutch playoff performer, as he now has 113 points in 88 career postseason games.
Rantanen was ranked first on all but one ballot we collected from our voters. He’s easily the favorite for playoff MVP at this point, and rightfully so.
The other favorites
There’s a palpable gap between Rantanen and the Connors in the playoff MVP race, but both Kyle Connor and Connor McDavid are building strong cases.
The Jets winger had 12 points in seven games against the St. Louis Blues, outscoring his team’s goaltending problems — which doesn’t accurately describe a double Vezina Trophy winner getting pulled in three road games — while leading Winnipeg to a first-round win.
Connor was awesome in Game 7: He set up Cole Perfetti‘s two goals and then picking up a secondary assist on Adam Lowry‘s double-overtime winner. He stepped up in the absence of linemate and second-leading scorer Mark Scheifele and helped Winnipeg advance past the first round for the first time in three postseasons.
It’s still surreal to think of McDavid as the reigning Conn Smythe winner, having been named playoff MVP after Edmonton’s seven-game loss in the Stanley Cup Final to Florida. If it’s the playoffs, McDavid is scoring in them. The Edmonton star has 110 points in 63 playoff games over the past five seasons, besting teammate Leon Draisaitl by 14 points.
McDavid led the Oilers with 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in their opening-round win against the Los Angeles Kings. It was supposed to be different this time for the Kings, who had lost to Edmonton in the first round for three consecutive seasons. It was different in one respect: Rather than the 2.00 points per game McDavid averaged in the three previous series wins against Los Angeles, he averaged only 1.83 points per game against the Kings in this six-game series victory.
Our voters had McDavid slightly ahead of Connor on their ballots, but they’re the clear second and third choices behind Rantanen at this point in the postseason.
Making their cases
Multiple voters expressed surprise that they were listing a member of the Leafs as one of the most valuable players of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but here we are. Toronto got past Ottawa in the first round and won Game 1 against the Florida Panthers thanks in no small part to the offensive performances by Nylander.
He is the member of the Core Four who has made the biggest impact in the playoffs, with 20 goals in 36 games since 2020-21. That’s seven more than Auston Matthews has scored in that span.
Nylander has had points in every game for the Leafs this postseason save for one: Linus Ullmark‘s Game 5 shutout for Ottawa. But Willy Styles came roaring back in Game 6 with two goals and an assist in Toronto’s Game 6 elimination of the Senators. He has three goals and two assists in the Leafs’ Game 1 wins in each round. He has been a pacesetter and a closer.
Thompson is the only goalie who made any of our ballots, getting love from a handful of voters. The Capitals goalie had a .923 save percentage and a 2.23 goals-against average in five games against the Canadiens. That he played five games against the Habs was surprising, given that he was helped from the ice in Washington’s Game 3 loss to Montreal. But Thompson was back for the Capitals’ wins in Games 4 and 5, giving up just three goals on 47 shots.
These were the only other players who were mentioned on our voters’ ballots. But there are others who could easily play their way into the conversation as the postseason continues.
On the cusp
The Oilers somehow eliminated the Kings in Game 6 without a single point from Draisaitl, but the Edmonton star made his presence known in Game 1 against Vegas with an assist and the game-tying goal, his fourth of the postseason. Draisaitl is tied for the second-most points in the postseason (12) after seven games.
Bouchard still trails the since-eliminated St. Louis’s Cam Fowler by one point for the most by a defenseman in the postseason. But the “Bouch Bombs” will continue for the foreseeable future given the Oilers’ success, as Bouchard has nine points (four goals, five assists) in seven games.
The Golden Knights’ dynamic duo. Stone leads Vegas with four goals, but both players have six points.
They didn’t have the best start against St. Louis, but they’ve hit the board in four straight games — including two goals from Stone in Game 1 against Edmonton.
Rantanen has deservedly grabbed the headlines, but don’t sleep on the contributions of Johnston to the Stars. His power-play goal gave Dallas a 3-2 lead in Game 7 with less than four minutes remaining against the Avalanche. He has seven points in seven games.
Oettinger held down the fort in the final moments of Game 7 and has posted strong numbers so far in the postseason, with a .911 save percentage and a 2.85 goals-against average.
Marner is right behind Nylander with nine points in seven games, with eight assists. He has a team-high five points on the power play. What’s a Conn Smythe Trophy worth in a contract year?
Bennett leads the Panthers with four goals in six games. As the Maple Leafs have learned, he makes frequently an impact off the scoresheet, sometimes in a game-changing way.
Andersen is playing behind a great defensive team with a forecheck that leaves him quite lonely back in the other zone. But when opponents have gotten chances against him, the veteran goalie has been a brick wall: He has a .935 save percentage and a 1.45 goals-against average this postseason.
Slavin won Game 1 of the Hurricanes’ second-round series against the Capitals with an overtime goal. His other goal in the postseason was a spirit-crusher in Carolina’s 5-2 Game 4 win over New Jersey. But scoring is never the story with Slavin: It’s his minutes (24:28 to lead the Hurricanes) and his defense, including being the linchpin of their dominant penalty kill. Plus, there’s a lot of voter goodwill built up for Slavin from his 4 Nations Face-Off performance.
Strome leads the Capitals with nine points and was one of the top scorers in the first round. Ovechkin won the Conn Smythe in 2018 when the Capitals won the Stanley Cup. He had four goals and an assist in their five-game series win over the Montreal Canadiens. They’ll need more games like that in a tight-checking series against the Hurricanes.
If Ovechkin carries the Caps in the playoffs, could voters resist the chance to cap his NHL record-breaking season with another playoff MVP award?
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Rangers recalled utility man Ezequiel Duran from Triple-A Round Rock on Thursday to fill the 26-man roster spot vacated by outfielder Kevin Pillar.
Pillar was placed on the 10-day injured list with lower back inflammation, retroactive to Sunday, before Wednesday’s game at Boston.
Duran will be in his third stint with the Rangers this season. He hit .345 with four home runs, six doubles, four RBIs and 13 runs scored in 14 games with Round Rock since being optioned by Texas on April 20. He has made 10 starts at shortstop and four starts at third base with Round Rock.
Duran was on Texas’ Opening Day roster for the third straight season and has played all four infield positions over seven games for the Rangers this year. He was 0-for-14 with one RBI. Duran is a .253 career hitter with 22 home runs and 92 RBIs in 279 games across four major league seasons, all with Texas.
The Pirates have fired manager Derek Shelton following a rocky opening month to the season that saw Pittsburgh quickly slip into last place in the National League Central.
General manager Ben Cherington made the announcement Thursday. Bench coach Don Kelly will take over for Shelton, who is the first manager fired across Major League Baseball this season.
The decision comes with Pittsburgh riding a seven-game losing streak that saw its record fall to 12-26 and the team drop 10 games back of the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. Shelton, hired by Cherington in November 2019 as part of a franchise-wide reset by owner Bob Nutting, went 306-440 in five-plus seasons with the Pirates.
“Derek worked incredibly hard and sacrificed a lot over five-plus years,” Cherington said in a statement. “His family became a big part of the Pirates family, and we will miss that. He’s an incredibly smart, curious, and driven baseball leader. I believe he was the right person for the job when he was hired. I also believe that a change is now necessary. I wish Derek and his family all the best in their next chapter.”
Noting there is “a lot of baseball left to be played,” Nutting said the team needed to “act with a sense of urgency and take the steps necessary to fix this now to get back on track as a team and organization.” He said the first quarter of the season had been “frustrating and painful for all of us.”
The Pirates, ranked 26th out of 30 MLB teams in Opening Day payroll, began the season hoping to contend behind reigning NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes. Though the 22-year-old Skenes has been solid and the starting rotation in general has been steady, Pittsburgh’s offense has languished near the bottom of the NL all season, sitting ahead of only the Colorado Rockies in batting average and runs scored.
Pittsburgh is in the middle of a difficult stretch that began with the team getting swept by both San Diego and St. Louis. Pittsburgh’s next nine games are against NL powers Atlanta, the New York Mets and Philadelphia.
Kelly, a former major league player who entered the big leagues with Pittsburgh and is a native of the city, had served in his previous role with the Pirates since 2020.
“Donnie is as respected as any person in our clubhouse and throughout our organization,” Nutting said. “He is a Pirate. He bleeds black and gold. No one is more committed, and no one loves this team or city more than Donnie. He is the right person to manage our team and help get us back on track.”
The Pirates haven’t made the postseason since 2015. That is the second-longest active postseason drought in baseball, ahead of only the Los Angeles Angels, who haven’t reached the playoffs since 2014.
The Pirates gave Shelton, a former minor league catcher, his first major league managing job after he served as a coach in various capacities in Tampa Bay, Toronto and Minnesota.
Cherington tasked him with setting a new foundation for a club that has been an also-ran for the past three decades, save for a brief three-year stretch from 2013 to 2015 in which the Pirates returned to prominence.
The consistently upbeat Shelton oversaw a clubhouse with an incredible amount of churn during his first four seasons as Cherington traded away most of the established major leaguers on the roster — Joe Musgrove, Josh Bell, Jameson Taillon to name a few — to restock the club’s prospect pool.
Pittsburgh won less than 40% of its games in Shelton’s first three seasons before taking a step forward in 2023 when it won 76 games. Skenes’ arrival last May gave the franchise another jolt, and the Pirates were in playoff contention until an August swoon.
The club’s lack of offense in 2024 was its biggest issue. Rather than invest in proven major league talent — the team’s biggest offseason pickups were acquiring first baseman Spencer Horwitz (who is still rehabbing from wrist surgery over the winter) and signing Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier — Cherington instead retooled parts of the coaching staff and scouting department, including firing hitting coach Andy Haines and replacing him with Matt Hague.
Results have not followed. Pittsburgh is near the bottom of the majors in runs (29th), OPS (29th), home runs (28th) and average (27th) with no signs of improvement. The Pirates have scored a total of five runs in their past five games while getting shut out twice.
They are even struggling when Skenes is on the hill. The top pick in the 2023 first-year player draft has a respectable 2.77 ERA in eight starts in 2025, but the Pirates are 3-5 in those games, including a 2-1 loss to St. Louis on Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway