Alexander Ovechkin’s season is getting plenty of recognition and why not. It’s not every year arguably the best player in the game loses his top center (Michael Nylander), inks a record contract and carries his team on his back from worst into playoff contention.

Good pal Greg Wyshynski of AOL FanHouse who covers AO down in D.C. has more on why the 22 year-old Russian deserves to win the Hart Trophy along with other possible candidates including Calgary’s Jarome Iginla fresh off a natural hat trick boosting his team’s postseason chances.

Yahoo’s Ross McKeon pushed the affable 30 year-old power forward for the award citing the obvious. That Iginla’s team will make the playoffs. Something which isn’t a given for Ovechkin and the Caps.

I’ve always been a big fan of Iginla’s and wouldn’t be opposed to seeing him get nominated along with the dynamic Russian duo of Ovechkin and Pitt’s Evgeni Malkin. The Calgary right wing has been on fire matching the color of his team’s jersey with 12 points (8-4-12) in the last seven.

His torrid play has him now third in goals (48) and points (91) trailing only Ovechkin (60-46-106) and Malkin (44-58-102) entering tonight. Also boosting his candidacy is that his nine game-winners is tied for second in the league, just trailing Ovechkin’s 10.

The problem with just taking the top three scorers for League MVP is that there are other worthy candidates such as Detroit’s Nick Lidstrom (8-57-65, +40 in 70 GP) plus teammates Pavel Datsyuk (31-59-90, +39, 6 GW) & Henrik Zetterberg (40-45-85, +29, 15 PP, 6 GW) Ottawa’s Jason Spezza (31-55-86, +22 in 69 GP) plus linemates Daniel Alfredsson (38-43-81, 9 PP, 7 SH, 5 GW) and Dany Heatley (37-40-77, +31, 12 PP, 8 GW in 64 GP) along with San Jose’s Joe Thornton (21-64-85, +17).

Other players who deserve mention are New Jersey’s Marty Brodeur (40 W, 2.17 GAA, .920 Save Pct., 4 SHO), Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo (34 W, 2.22 GAA, .922 Save Pct., 6 SHO), Minnesota right wing Marian Gaborik (38-37-75, +15, 6 GW) Montreal forward Alexei Kovalev (33-44-77, +17, 16 PP), Anaheim forward Ryan Getzlaf (23-54-77) , Carolina’s Eric Staal (35-40-75, 7 GW) and Dallas pivot Mike Ribeiro (27-51-78, +20).

Had Flyer center Mike Richards (26-44-70, 5 SH, 72 PIM) not missed time, you could toss his name in there as well.

Maybe the best player not listed so far is Toronto franchise center Mats Sundin. In 72 games on a defensively challenged team hit with injuries, the veteran future Hall of Famer has 32 goals and 45 assists for 77 points along with a respectable plus-14 rating.

Too bad he plays on the Maple Leafs.

More on Ovechkin reaching 60:

FROM THE STAT WIZARDS AT ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU
Alex Ovechkin scored his 59th and 60th goals of the season in Washington’s win at Atlanta on Friday night. Ovechkin, who was 22 years, 186 days old when he did it, is the fifth-youngest player in NHL history to reach the 60-goal mark in a season.

The four players younger than Ovechkin at the time of their 60th goal were Wayne Gretzky in 1981-82 (20 years, 359 days) and 1982-83 (22-41), Pavel Bure in 1992-93 (22-11), Mike Bossy in 1978-79 (22-62) and Mario Lemieux in 1987-88 (22-167).