Saturday, September 30, 2023

Logan Couture Should Have Won 2016 Conn Smythe Trophy

People are going to think I'm crazy for saying this, but I don't care. At all.

The Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded to the best player of his team during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The description doesn't include anything about the trophy being awarded to a player on the winning team. Not only that, but in the NBA, that similar award goes to the best player strictly in the finals. Unlike the Conn Smythe that takes into account all of the Stanley Cup playoffs. 

Players on losing teams who still won the Conn Smythe trophy: Glen Hall (1968), Reggie Leach (1976), Ron Hextal (1987), Roger Crozier, (1996), Jean-Sebastien Giguere (2003)

See, players have indeed won the Conn Smythe trophy even if their teams weren't victorious in the end. And Logan Couture should have been on this list for his 2016 performance. 

I'm a Sidney Crosby fan, 100%. But here's my issue with Sid the Kid winning the trophy over Logan Couture. For starters, he only won because he's "Sidney Crosby" and Evgeni Malkin won the award in 2009. The NHL needed Crosby to win it. He didn't even lead his own team in points. Phil Kessel, who played 24 games during the 2016 playoffs registered 10 goals and 22 points. kessel was also a plus-five. As for Sid? Well, he played the same amount of games and scored only 6 goals and 19 points. On top of that Crosby was a minus-two.

Nobody else sees a problem here?

Let's get to Logan.

Logan Couture was the star of the show. Couture also played 24 games, but he was able to hit the double-digit goal mark with 10, unlike somebody, while also leading the playoffs in assists with 20. 

Couture put up 30 points, in 24 games, and was a plus-five. 

He had more assists in the playoffs than Crosby had points for crying out loud. 

My thing is this, rewrite the description of what the Conn Smythe Trophy is about. Rewrite it to state that it must be awarded to a player on the winning team or to a player based on their Stanley Cup Finals performance.

There is absolutely no logical explanation for Logan Couture not being named the best player in the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He deserved that trophy, and it isn't even close. Shame on the NHL. 

In my eyes, Logan Couture is a Conn Smythe Winner.

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