First awarded 1993 | Category of ESPY Award | |
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The Best NHL Player ESPY Award has been presented annually since 1993 to the National Hockey League player, irrespective of nationality, adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year, typically most significantly in the NHL season contested during or immediately prior to the holding of the ESPY Awards ceremony.
Between 1993 and 2004, the award voting panel comprised variously fans; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and retired sportspersons, but balloting thereafter has been exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.
Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in June and reflect performance from the previous June.a
Canadian centers Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby and right wing Jarome Iginla and Czech goaltender Dominik Hasek are the only players to have been honored multiple times; Lemieux, having captured the award three times, in 1993, 1994, and 1998, and Crosby having captured the award seven times, in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2016.
Of the nineteen awards conferred, just five have gone to players not from Canada (two to Hasek and one to countrymate right wing Jaromír Jágr, one to American Tim Thomas, and one to American Jonathan Quick), and just one has gone to a defenseman (that of 2001, to Canadian Chris Pronger).
Player was a member of the winning team in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Player was a member of the defeated team in the Stanley Cup Finals.
† indicates a winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy.