Who will win the NHL's top awards this season? Here are AP's predictions

Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon, Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov, Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Toronto's Auston Matthews are all in the running to win the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.

MacKinnon has carried the top-heavy Avalanche into the playoffs, Kucherov has played a role in half the Lightning's goals, McDavid got the Oilers back in it after a horrid start and Matthews is on the verge of becoming the first to player to hit 70 goals in a season in more than 30 years.

McDavid also became just the fourth player to record 100 assists in a season, and Kucherov is one away with a game left.

“There’s a lot,” Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman said. "These kind of numbers have not been reached in a long time. ... It’s going to be close, but you obviously know who has my vote.”

Here is who AP's hockey writers think will take home the hardware on these regular-season awards in June (all stats through Tuesday):

Lage: MacKinnon. It’s time for the superstar to win the award. Five times he has finished in the top six, and he has crushed his career highs in goals, assists and points for one of the NHL’s best teams.

Wawrow: Matthews. There have been only 14 times a player has scored 70 goals in a season, and none since Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne had 76 apiece in 1992-93. Matthews simply approaching that number and representing 23.4% of his team's goal total is too hard to overlook.

Whyno: Kucherov. While MacKinnon winning would add an important honor to his career, Kucherov has 53 more points than his next-closest teammate.

Lage: Quinn Hughes. Vancouver has had a stunning turnaround and the 24-year-old has had a lot to do with it. The Canucks have been able to count on the durable defenseman being in the lineup and producing, more than doubling his previous career high in goals.

Wawrow: Hughes. Sure, the Predators don't come close to making the playoffs without Roman Josi. But, the Canucks don't go from missing the playoffs by 12 points last year to winning the Pacific Division without Hughes.

Whyno: Roman Josi. The Predators' late 16-0-2 run was a reflection of Josi's monster play as a point-a-game player. Nashville's captain also has the most goals among defensemen with 23.

Lage: Connor Bedard. The No. 1 overall pick in the draft lived up to the hype, averaging roughly a point a game despite teams trying to shut him down while playing for Chicago, one of the worst teams in the league.

Wawrow: Bedard. Whatever questions faced the 5-foot-10, 185-pound, 18-year-old forward were answered in a season he led all rookies in points despite missing six weeks with a broken jaw.

Whyno: Brock Faber. While Bedard has yet to play a meaningful game because the Blackhawks are far from contention, Faber skated 25 minutes a night for Minnesota as the Wild tried to make the playoffs. That's sixth among all players, and he has 46 points.

Lage: Aleksander Barkov. The 2021 winner has finished among the top eight in voting six times. The two-way player was among league leaders in plus-minus and averaged more than a point per game for Florida, suiting up in 73 of 82.

Wawrow: Jordan Staal. Carolina has overcome a rash of goaltender injuries, and Staal's defensive-minded play contributed to the Hurricanes ranking among the NHL's top five in goals against.

Whyno: Staal. The Hurricanes captain has yet to win the Selke, and no better time than now given his central role in anchoring Carolina's shutdown line and winning 58.1% of his faceoffs.

Lage: Connor Hellebuyck. The 2020 winner has been spectacular this season. Hellebuyck gave up fewer than 2.50 goals a game to lift Winnipeg to a 100-point season for the first time since 2018, when the Jets reached the conference final for the first and only time in franchise history.

Wawrow: Hellebuyck. The 30-year-old from Michigan gets the nod ahead of Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky for a few reasons, including enjoying 36 starts in which he allowed two or fewer goals. Bobrovsky did so in 32 starts and on a Panthers team regarded for being defensively responsible.

Whyno: Hellebuyck. His save percentage is best in the NHL among goalies with 50 or more starts, and his goals-against average is second only to Bobrovsky's. Just give him the trophy.

Lage: Rick Tocchet. He took over in Vancouver when Bruce Boudreau was fired midway through last season and made the most of the opportunity. The Canucks were considered a middle-of-the-pack team at best before the season started and ended up earning more points than any season for more than a decade.

Wawrow: Tocchet. The 60-year-old showed potential in making the Arizona Coyotes competitive during his four-year stint in the desert. And that's carried over in the Pacific Northwest where he's getting the best out of a talented team that underachieved last season.

Whyno: Spencer Carbery. Washington — with its minus-37 goal differential, worst of any playoff team since 1991 when 16 of 21 teams in the league made it — on paper had no business reaching the postseason but here they are. Carbery pushed all the right buttons from start to finish.

Lage: Patrick Kane. The 35-year-old winger revived his career with Detroit, bouncing back from hip surgery. The three-time Cup champion and 2016 MVP was kind with everyone he crossed paths with, though goaltenders didn’t love that he still has quick hands and a slick shot.

Wawrow: Jaccob Slavin. The Hurricanes defenseman has single-digit penalty minutes despite logging nearly 21 minutes of ice time per game and in a rough-and-tumble division.

Whyno: Slavin previously won this award in 2021, and he deserves it again based on the defensive matchups he is tasked with, taking just four minor penalties in 81 games.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) celebrates his goal against the Detroit Red Wings during the second period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 13, 2024, in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) reacts to his goal against the Minnesota Wild during an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/Bart Young)

Ottawa Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot (72) steals the puck from Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov (86) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Politicians and dog experts are criticizing South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem after she wrote in a new book about killing a rambunctious puppy. The story — and the vilification she received on social media — has some wondering whether she's still a viable potential running mate for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Experts who work with hunting dogs like Noem’s said she should have trained — not killed — the pup, or found other options if the dog was out of control.

Noem has tried to reframe the story from two decades ago as an example of her willingness to make tough decisions. She wrote on social media that the 14-month-old wirehaired pointer named Cricket had shown aggressive behavior by biting.

“As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy,” she said on X. “But often the easy way isn’t the right way.”

Still, Democrats and even some conservatives have been critical.

“This story is not landing. It is not a facet of rural life or ranching to shoot dogs,” conservative commentator Tomi Lahrenco posted online.

Several posters described Noem as Cruella de Vil, the villain from the Disney classic “101 Dalmatians.” A meme features a series of dogs offering looks of horror.

“I’m not sure which thing she did was stupider: The fact that she murdered the dog, or the fact that she was stupid enough to publish it in a book,” said Joan Payton, of the German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America. The club itself described the breed as “high-energy,” and said Noem was too impatient and her use of a shock collar for training was botched.

But South Dakota Democratic Senate Minority Leader Reynold Nesiba considered the disclosure more calculated than stupid. He said the story has circulated for years among lawmakers that Noem killed a dog in a “fit of anger” and that there were witnesses. He speculated that it was coming out now because Noem is being vetted as a candidate for vice president.

“She knew that this was a political vulnerability, and she needed to put it out there, before it came up in some other venue," he said. “Why else would she write about it?”

In her soon-to-be-released book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” of which The Guardian obtained a pre-release copy, Noem writes that she took Cricket on a bird hunting trip with older dogs in hopes of calming down the wild puppy. Instead, Cricket chased the pheasants, attacked a family's chickens during a stop on the way home and then “whipped around to bite me," she wrote.

Noem's spokesperson didn't immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about whether the dog actually bit her or just tried to do so, or whether Noem had to seek medical treatment. The book's publisher declined to provide AP an advance copy of the book.

Afterward, Noem wrote, she led Cricket to a gravel pit and killed her. She said she also shot a goat that the family owned, saying it was mean and liked to chase her kids.

The response to the story was swift: “Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit. I’ll start,” Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on X. The post included a photo of him feeding ice cream off a spoon to his Labrador mix named Scout.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign added a photo of the president strolling on the White House lawn with one of his three German Shepherds. Two of Biden's dogs, Major and Commander, were removed following aggressive behavior, including toward White House and Secret Service personnel. The oldest, Champ, died.

Democrat Hillary Clinton reposted a 2021 comment in which she warned, “Don’t vote for anyone you wouldn’t trust with your dog.” She added Monday, “Still true.”

Conservative political commentator Michael Knowles said on his titular podcast that while Noem could have handled the situation differently, “there is nothing wrong with a human being humanely killing an animal.” He later added: “Fifty years ago, this political story would not have made anyone in most of America bat an eyelash. And the fact that it does today tells you something, not about the changing morality of putting down a farm animal, but about the changing politics of America.”

He later said that the story is “extremely stupid and insignificant” because Noem doesn’t have a chance of being selected as Trump’s running mate.

Payton, who is a delegate to the American Kennel Club and lives in Bakersfield, California, said the situation was a mess from beginning to end.

“That was a puppy that had no experience, obviously no training,” she said. “If you know a minuscule amount about a bird dog, you don’t take a 14 month old out with trained adult dogs and expect them to perform. That’s not how it works.”

The club itself said puppies learn best by hunting one-to-one with their owners, not with other dogs.

When problems arose she should have called the breeder, Payton said, or contacted rescue organizations that find new homes for the breed.

Among those groups is the National German Wirehaired Pointer Rescue, which called on Noem in a Facebook post to take accountability for her “horrific decision” and to educate the public that there are more humane solutions.

“Sporting breeds are bred with bird/hunting instincts but it takes training and effort to have a working field dog,” the group's Board of Directors wrote in the post.

Payton described Cricket as nothing more than “a baby,” saying the breed isn't physically mature until it is 2 years old and not fully trained it's 3- to 5-years old.

“This was a person that I had thought was a pretty good lady up until now," she said. "She was somebody that I would have voted for. But I think she may have shot herself in the foot.”

Politicians and dog experts vilify South Dakota governor after she writes about killing her dog

FILE - South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem attends an event Jan. 10, 2024, at the state Capitol in Pierre, S.D. The Guardian has obtained a copy of Noem's soon-to-be released book, where she writes about killing an unruly dog, and a smelly goat, too. She writes, according to the Guardian, that the tale was included to show her willingness to do anything "difficult, messy and ugly." (AP Photo/Jack Dura, File)

Politicians and dog experts vilify South Dakota governor after she writes about killing her dog