[jammies]

Gaudreau is a lock. He will get the homer NE USA vote, the name recognition vote, and plenty of the knowledgeable hockey writers vote. Stone plays for Ottawa, so his homer vote is one city, his name recognition is not nearly at the same level, and so even if he splits up the smart votes, that won't be nearly enough.

Objectively he and Stone should be the front-runners, as both have produced in the last month of the season with their teams needing points to make the playoffs. Forsberg and Nashville have regressed, and Ekblad has done very little to help Florida, and they're out now. Performance under pressure is critical, and that's what should sway voters, not just looking at roughly equal stats and flipping a coin. It won't matter, though, because the right man will win, if perhaps not for all the right reasons.