Only one Russian is among the best: Does America not believe in Ovechkin and Kaprizov?

Andrey SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsLeave to the authorArtemy Panarin stood on a par with the hero of the championship “Colorado”.While hockey players have a rest during the off-season and tune in to the training camp, sports journalists are looking for reasons for discussion. Compiling various ratings is a proven option that will surely provoke the necessary reaction. Recently, The Athletic published a large material in which its authors shared their predictions for the season. Among them were one of the main columnists of the publication Sean Gentyll, analyst Shayna Goldman and NHL betting expert Jesse Granger. For example, they considered that the reigning league champion Colorado Avalanche had the highest chances of defending the title, and three Russians were chosen as the main contenders for the title of the best goaltender in the NHL — Igor Shesterkin, Andrey Vasilevsky and Ilya Sorokin, respectively. The appearance of Vladimir Tarasenko among the main stars who can be exchanged to another club is also interesting: Vlady, along with JT Miller, shared second place with 83.3% of the vote and “lost” only to Patrick Kane (93.3%). The rating of hockey players turned out to be extremely curious. , claiming the main individual prize according to the results of the regular season — «Hart Trophy». The award is given to the most valuable player on their team. Last season, it was won for the first time in his career by the leader of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews. But the authors of The Athletic believe that Matthews will not be able to repeat the success in the upcoming season. The Maple Leafs forward was placed in third place, with 4.5% of the authors voting for him. The leader, predictably, was the incomparable Connor McDavid (75%). The 25-year-old Canadian already has two Harts to his credit and has been nominated four times over the past six seasons. MacDie's main pursuer is Colorado's Cale Makar (11.4%).