2019 Conn Smythe Trophy Odds Ahead of Second-Round of NHL Playoffs

• Nine of the 10 active NHLers who have won the Conn Smythe Trophy are already out of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs
• Carolina’s Justin Williams, the last winner standing, isn’t among the 40 players listed on the Conn Smythe Trophy odds
• Six of the top seven favorites are goaltenders

Much like the Stanley Cup, the rash of first-round upsets have turned the quest for the NHL’s Conn Smythe Trophy into a wide-open race, one that’s almost certain to provide a first-time winner.

And the 2014 Conn Smythe Trophy goes to … none other than @LAKings' Justin Williams #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/qr4VrfPxAo

— NHL (@NHL) June 14, 2014

Carolina Hurricanes’ forward Justin Williams, Conn Smythe Trophy winner with the 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings, is the only former NHL Playoff MVP still active in this spring’s postseason. But Williams isn’t even offered odds to win the award among a list 40 NHL players in its Conn Smythe Trophy odds.

2019 Conn Smythe Trophy Odds

*Odds taken on 04/25/19. 

Fifteen of the last 16 players to be awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy were first-time winners.

Big Names Bow Out

The top five picks for the Conn Smythe at the beginning of the 2019 Playoffs included three members of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning (Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos) and two players from Western Conference-leading Calgary Flames (Johnny Gaudreau and David Rittich). Those two teams combined to win one playoff game.

#ALLCaps Alex Ovechkin is the 6th player in NHL history to

*Win the Conn Smythe Trophy
*Win the Hart Trophy
*Win the Art Ross Trophy
*Lead the NHL in goal scoring pic.twitter.com/kKvanYhowx

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) June 8, 2018

Alex Ovechkin, last year’s winner, bowed out when the Washington Capitals lost Game 7 of their opening-round series to the Hurricanes. Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who won back-to-back Smythes in 2016 and 2017, was swept aside when the New York Islanders bounced Pittsburgh in the minimum four games.

Crosby became the 10th player in history & 3rd Penguin to win both the Hart Memorial Trophy & Conn Smythe Trophy. pic.twitter.com/Yn2GiH5mn0

— NHL (@NHL) June 14, 2016

Just four of the top 17 in the odds when the playoffs began remain in the hunt, and that foursome includes St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen, who’s yet to play a second in the postseason. He’s been watching from the bench while rookie Jordan Binnington tends to the St. Louis net.

Joe Thornton's playoff beard is the playoff beard by which all other playoff beards must be judged #NHLPlayoffs #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/1IF05lPIoX

— The ghost of Ichiro (@HimNameDoug) April 19, 2019

Only one active winner of the Hart Trophy as regular-season NHL MVP remains on the ice in the postseason and that’s Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks. He won the Hart in 2005-06.

Conn Smythe Goalie Win Overdue

If the playoffs conclude and a goaltender is not handed the Conn Smythe Trophy, it will make for Stanley Cup history.

Since the playoff MVP award was introduced in 1965, it’s been dominated by netminders. Goalies and centers share the all-time lead in Conn Smythe Trophy wins with 16 apiece. Patrick Roy, a goalie, owns a record three Conn Smythes. Bernie Parent, a goalie, was the first to win-to-back Smythes.

#NHL playoff MVPs: Here's a listing of Conn Smythe Trophy winners from 2000 to 2018. The photo is Avs goalie Patrick Roy during Colorado's Stanley Cup parade in 2001. Roy won the Conn Smythe for the third time, the only player ever to do so. pic.twitter.com/6YaLwg8Ngz

— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) April 11, 2019

Four of the five players to be playoff MVP from losing teams were netminders. St. Louis Blues goaltender Glenn Hall won in 1968 even though Montreal swept the Blues in the final. Hall remains the only Conn Smythe Trophy winner from a team that’s never won a Stanley Cup.

https://twitter.com/HockeyCynic/status/996601087439396864

But no goaltender has won the honor since Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings in 2012. If a goalie goes without again this spring, then it would be a record drought of seven years without a netminder winning the Conn Smythe.

The top three contenders, six of the first seven, and eight of the top 10 are all goalies.

Bad Brad and the Big Bad Bruins

Boston is the favorite to win the Stanley Cup now. If that turns out to be the case, looking at Bruins for the Conn Smythe Trophy only makes sense.

Boston goalie Tuukka Rask is the +950 chalk right now, but we’d put our money on another Bruin, forward Brad Marchand at +1500.

He put up 4-5-9 totals in the opening round against Toronto and has 26 points in his last 25 playoff games. He scored twice in Game 6 at Toronto as the Bruins won 4-2 to stave off elimination. Boston is 20-1 when Marchand registers a postseason goal.

Marchand scored 11 goals when Boston won the 2011 Stanley Cup. That included five goals in the Cup final series against the Vancouver Canucks.

Pick: Brad Marchand (+1500)