2021 NHL Awards: McDavid wins Art Ross, Matthews gets Maurice Richard

With the North Division spillover finally finished, the 2020-21 NHL regular season concluded on Wednesday. With that, quite a few 2021 NHL Awards became official -- even if you could see the winners coming a mile away.

With 105 points (in 56 games!), Connor McDavid won the 2021 Art Ross Trophy. Auston Matthews locked up the 2021 Maurice Richard Trophy with 41 goals.

[Also now official: the 2021 NHL Draft Lottery odds]

2021 NHL Awards: McDavid wins Art Ross

McDavid won the Art Ross Trophy by a mile, and he didn’t “settle” for 100 points during this abbreviated season. McDavid’s teammate Leon Draisaitl finished a distant second in the Art Ross race with 84 points, 21 behind the 105 for number 97.

The NHL shared some more information about McDavid’s incredible, Art-Ross-winning year, and his 105-point season. In collecting his third Art Ross Trophy, McDavid sits with all-time greats, including Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky:

He became the ninth player in NHL history to claim the award at least three times as well as the third to achieve the feat prior to his 25th birthday, following Wayne Gretzky (5x) and Gordie Howe (3x). McDavid’s 21-point gap over the runner-up was the largest by an NHL scoring champion since 1990-91, when Gretzky (41-122—163 in 78 GP w/ LAK) finished 32 points ahead of Brett Hull (86-45—131 in 78 GP w/ STL).

McDavid, who also topped the League in assists (72), power-play assists (28) and power-play points (37), factored on 57.38 percent of Edmonton’s 183 total goals (excluding the shootout) – the highest single-season percentage in NHL history, ahead of Mario Lemieux in 1988-89 (57.35% w/ PIT). He also posted a League-leading 1.88 points per game – the most by any player since 1995-96, when Lemieux averaged 2.30 (69-92—161 in 70 GP w/ PIT).

Auston Matthews officially wins the 2021 Maurice Richard Trophy

Auston Matthews generated an impressive margin for his Maurice Richard Trophy, too. He scored 41 goals to take it, eight more than second-place McDavid (33).

Matthews also scored 12 game-winning goals, which is pretty absurd in a shortened season. (Especially with some injury issues.)

More context from the league:

Matthews, who also paced the League with 12 game-winning goals and 222 shots on goal, accounted for 22.0 percent of Toronto’s 186 total goals (excluding the shootout) – the highest single-season percentage by an NHL player since 2014-15 (Ovechkin: 22.4% w/ WSH) and the best single-season mark by a Maple Leafs player in the expansion era (since 1967-68). His 0.79 goals per game also was the best such average by any player since 2007-08 (Ovechkin: 0.79) as well as the highest single-season mark in franchise history (minimum: 50 GP).

More to come, and others that have been confirmed

This rounds out some of the bottom-line 2021 NHL Awards. Earlier, the league confirmed that the Colorado Avalanche won the 2021 Presidents’ Trophy, while Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner combined to win the 2021 William M. Jennings Trophy.

Going forward, there are the more “subjective” 2021 NHL Awards. As you can see from Our Line Starts, McDavid is the clear favorite to win the Hart Trophy. There’s also some interesting room for debate for the Norris, Selke, GM of the Year, Jack Adams, and so on.

(It will be surprising to see anyone other than Kirill Kaprizov win the Calder Trophy, though.)

You can watch Connor McDavid and the Oilers begin their playoff run vs. the Jets on Wednesday.

Jets-Oilers stream coverage begins at 9 p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at [e-mail] or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.