Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov earns midseason MVP from hockey writers

Being the best player on the best team isn’t a bad way to win a Hart Trophy as the NHL’s regular-season MVP.

That’s where Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov finds himself at the All-Star break.

Kucherov, who leads the league with 78 points in 49 games, was the leading vote-getter in MVP balloting as the Professional Hockey Writers Association released its midseason awards Thursday.

Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid rounded out the top three in MVP voting.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has the respect of his peers for the all-around game he has been playing this season, but that didn’t translate into votes from the writers. Awards were voted on by 125 PHWA members from around the league.

Here is a look at the other nine awards handed out.

Norris Trophy: Calgary’s Mark Giordano is the favorite to win defenseman of the year honors, ranking second among defenseman with 52 points and first with a plus-29 rating. Toronto’s Morgan Rielly and San Jose’s Brent Burns were second and third in voting. Penguins defenseman Kris Letang is a candidate.

Vezina Trophy: Can a goalie on a mediocre team win a Vezina? This year could be a good test case. Whitehall native John Gibson is the winner of the midseason award despite going 17-16-8 for the struggling Anaheim Ducks. Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury, who leads the league in wins with 27, was second and has a good chance to claim his first Vezina.

Calder Trophy: Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson is the league’s top rookie by a large margin.

Jack Adams Award: If Pettersson for Calder isn’t the biggest lock for a postseason award, then it’s Barry Trotz of the New York Islanders for coach of the year honors. The improvement his first-place team has shown after losing John Tavares to free agency is nothing short of remarkable.

General manager of the year: Brad Treliving has the Calgary Flames contending in the Western Conference.

Selke Trophy: Boston’s Patrice Bergeron will be tough to dethrone for league’s best defensive forward honors. Florida’s Aleksander Barkov and Ottawa’s Mark Stone rounded out the top three. Crosby is a candidate.

Lady Byng Trophy: Voters were impressed with the gentlemanly play of Barkov, who has two penalty minutes in 48 games.

Rod Langway Award: Nashville’s Mattias Ekholm was voted best defensive defenseman, ahead of Giordano and Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman.

Comeback player of the year: Islanders goalie Robin Lehner has an .931 save percentage after battling alcohol and mental health problems.

Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jonathan at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib.