We’re still some way to go in the 2022-23 NHL season, and one player is looking the most poised to take home the MVP honors. Edmonton Oilers Connor McDavid is the consensus favourite player to win the 2023 Hart Trophy. He has had a fantastic start to the season so far and going 2021-22 Hart Trophy winner Auston Matthews is a distant second, and could well land a second MVP award if he replicates his incredible form last season.

The MVP ladder includes a lot of known names, but which players have the best shot at winning the prestigious award? Here’s what the MVP ladder for the 2022-23 regular season looks like:

Connor McDavid (+125)

Jason Robertson (+500)

Auston Matthews (+1200)

Leon Draisaitl (+1400)

Kirill Kaprizov (+1500)

Jack Eichel (+1500)

Jack Hughes (+1500)

Nathan MacKinnon (+1500)

David Pastrnak (+2400)

Nikita Kucherov (+2500)

Sidney Crosby (+3000)

Matthew Tkachuk (+3000)

Cale Makar (+3500)

Elias Pettersson (+3500)

Mitchell Marner (+3500)

Mikko Rantanen (+4000)

Adam Fox (+4000)

Mika Zibanejad (+5000)

Artemi Panarin (+7500)

Jesper Bratt (+7500)

Steven Stamkos (+10000)

Kyle Connor (+10000)

Evgeni Malkin (+10000)

Igor Sheshterkin (+10000)

Alex Ovechkin (+10000)

Aleksander Barkov (+10000)

Jonathan Huberdeau (+12000)

Sam Reinhart (+12000)

Andrei Svechnikov (+12000)

Brad Marchand (+12000)

Mathew Barzal (+12000)

Mark Scheifele (+12000)

Roman Josi (+12000)

John Tavares (+12000)

Patrik Laine (+12000)

Chris Kreider (+12000)

Connor Hellebuyck (+12000)

Patrick Kane (+12000)

Filip Forsberg (+12000)

Brady Tkachuk (+12000)

Andrei Vasilevskiy (+12000)

Sebastian Aho (+12000)

Anze Kopitar (+12000)

Blake Wheeler (+20000)

Nazem Kadri (+20000)

Teuvo Teravainen (+20000)

Tage Thompson (+20000)

Shea Theodore (+20000)

Trevor Zegras (+20000)

Nicklas Backstrom (+20000)

Evander Kane (+20000)

Roope Hintz (+20000)

Nico Hischier (+20000)

Alex Pietrangelo (+20000)

Bo Horvat (+20000)

Alex Debrincat (+20000)

William Nylander (+20000)

Claude Giroux (+20000)

Brock Boeser (+20000)

Brayden Point (+20000)

Aaron Ekblad (+20000)

Patrice Bergeron (+20000)

Johnny Gaudreau (+20000)

Mark Stone (+20000)

Jake Guentzel (+20000)

Dougie Hamilton (+20000)

Victor Hedman (+20000)

From FanDuel’s NHL betting odds as of December 1, 2022.

A Breakdown of the 2022-23 MVP Favorites

Connor McDavid

Centers have won five of the last 10 Hart Trophy awards and Connor McDavid will be hoping to become the latest to land an MVP honors. He has been leading the MVP race since the offseason and has shown no sign of slowing down. 

McDavid is arguably the NHL’s most explosive offensive player, and the 2015 NHL Draft first-overall pick has yet to throw in the towel. He leads the league in points (47) and assists (26), and his 21 goals so far this season is the second most scored. 

ESPN projects McDavid to hit 69 goals and 85 assists for a total of 154 points in 80 games, which should be more than enough to land him the MVP honors.

Auston Matthews

The 2021-22 Hart Trophy winner will be hoping to land back-to-back honors, despite the Toronto Maple Leafs not being in top form at the start of the season. Toronto appears to be picking up again though with seven wins in their last ten games, including a five-game winning streak. The Buds are 2nd in the Atlantic Division and have the third-best record in the Eastern Conference with 15 wins, five losses, and six overtime losses.

Matthews isn’t having a bad season either, although his current form is a shadow of his MVP-winning season. The 24-year-old centre has 12 goals and 16 assists for 28 points in 26 games. ESPN projects Matthews to finish the season with 38 goals and 50 assists for 88 points, compared to the 60 goals and 40 assists he registered last season.

The Buds star man will hope to become the first player since Alexander Ovechkin (2008, 2009) to repeat as Hart Trophy winner. However, given his current form, his chances have continued to dip.

Jason Robertson (+500)

Jason Robertson leapfrogged Matthews to take the 2nd spot, and deservedly so. The Dallas Stars key man has turned it up a notch this season after a stellar 2021-22 campaign. Robertson tops the goal-scoring rankings with 23 goals and has provided 18 assists so far this season.

ESPN projects he could hit 75 goals and 59 assists for a combined 166 points at the end of the season, more points than his closest contenders for the MVP honors. He has seven goals and three assists in his last five games. The 23-year-old left-winger extended his point streak to 18 games on Sunday with a goal and an assist to his name.

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The mood among the Chicago Cubs’ fan base is one of growing frustration owing to the decisions that are being made at the boardroom level. In short, the large majority of supporters have grown wary of the Cubs’ policy when it comes to recruitment. At least, that is the diplomatic description of the current situation with fans who adopt a more direct approach to the goings-on in the front office, in no doubt about the fact that they are being shortchanged by the Cubs’ management. 

Hoyer’s refusal to spend has earned him the wrath of Cubs fans 

In essence, the root of this discontent comes down to Cubs president Jed Hoyer’s refusal to hand out long-term contracts to players they are trying to sign. Ultimately, many fans feel that this is why the franchise is unable to snap up the targets at the top of its recruitment list. Instead, Hoyer has been open about his desire to spend intelligently as the Cubs look to carry out a comprehensive rebuild but with that said, it doesn’t take much imagination to understand why the exasperated voices are getting louder given that rebuilds often require substantial capital outlay.

Put another way, rebuilding the Cubs’ team on a shoestring budget is unlikely to see the team win their first World Series since 2016 and the fans know as much.

Has the Cubs’ recruitment policy already cost them the chance to win the 2023 World Series?

To put the Cubs’ World Series chances into better context, the team is at extraordinary odds of +8000 to win the 2023 edition which goes without saying but even the most die-hard Cubs fans would battle to put a wager on them overcoming that price. However, this page which covers everything to do with Illinois sports betting, has listed the best online sportsbook welcome bonuses in the Prairie State which conveniently, will give fans a chance to place a risk-free bet on the Cubs doing the impossible and winning the 2023 World Series. 

Stranger things have, of course, happened but the reality is that confidence among the supporters is at an all-time low. This is why the spotlight will be turned on Hoyer’s signing policy this season after the Cubs ended the 2022 campaign with a record that read 74–88. Notably, it was the second season in a row that the Cubs missed out on the playoffs. There are no two ways about it, things have got to change.

There is a wave of scrutiny coming Hoyer’s way but there’s still time to get it right 

With these alarming stats in mind, it’s easy to see why patience has waned to the degree it has among the fan base. The long and short of it is that Hoyer’s strategy for the Cubs has to begin to bear fruit this season or else he faces a full-blown mutiny. 

Crucially, there is still time for the Cubs to leave their mark on the upcoming campaign but it will require a dramatic shift in policy for them to do that. However unlikely it is that the checkbook will be opened, the team’s management does deserve the benefit of the doubt over the offseason, even if fans won’t be holding their breath.

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It was a sound plan at the time.

Billy Donovan had seen enough from the starting group he was using after an embarrassing showing in Phoenix two weeks ago, so the Bulls coach wanted a new look, a different energy.

As has been the case far too often the last few seasons, however, this has been a roster where sound plans go to die.

Right after he inserted Alex Caruso and Javonte Green in the starting lineup for Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams, respectively, Green went down with a sore knee, and a few games later Caruso’s tailbone issue reared its ugly head once again.

As for that new-look lineup?

Donovan got to see it in action a whopping one game — a 119-111 loss at Golden State.

Hardly a good enough sample size to judge its effectiveness. That could change on Wednesday night, as the Bulls host Tom Thibodeau and the New York Knicks, and do so with a real possibility of that grouping being healthy again.

Well, maybe.

Green did return in Atlanta on Sunday, but did so with some minutes restrictions, being used off the bench for 14 minutes because of it. Caruso went through the Tuesday practice, giving the thumbs up on his return, but there was still uncertainty if Donovan would start either because of the injury concerns.

What Donovan has working on his side with this group? Besides the “Big Three” of Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan, the rest of the roster is very much ego-free. Green made that very clear.

“Starting, coming off the bench, no difference for me, man,” Green said. “I’m just trying to get better, but more importantly, make my teammates better. That’s the ultimate goal. Just win games, and that will take you to the end of where you want to go. That’s my mentality, just do whatever it takes to win games.”

That’s good, because what Donovan made very clear was that just because Green and Caruso were inserted in the starting lineup in late November, doesn’t mean this grouping will see January, or even late December.

“To be honest with you, we may put Javonte out there and then say, ‘You know what? We need to go back with Patrick.’ ” Donovan said. “It’s more about the combination of guys.”

Williams did get the start against the Hawks, scoring eight points in 25 minutes of work, and the former No. 4 overall draft pick has played better the last five games, scoring in double digits in three of those contests.

So what can Williams do to get back in starting good graces?

As long as the starting group of Green, Caruso, Vucevic, DeRozan and LaVine play well – once they actually get a few games under their belts – it might not matter what Williams does with the bench unit.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily anything Patrick has or hasn’t done as much as how do you kind of get combinations of players out there that are functioning really, really well?” Donovan said. “Clearly I think there’s been some inconsistencies on both units. The starters sometimes and obviously the second unit, so we’re just trying to switch things up and get more consistency from the first six minutes of the game to the last six minutes of the quarter, going to that second unit. We may end up getting to a situation where quite honestly it’s the best thing for our team to keep Patrick there. It’s not like, ‘Hey, he hasn’t played well, he doesn’t function well with that group.’ It’s just we were struggling with consistency at that time.

“When we put Javonte in there I wanted to see what it looked like.”

Maybe soon Donovan actually will.

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Are the Bears making room for Jalen Carter already?

The 6-3, 300-pound Georgia first-team All-America defensive tackle might be the best defensive player in the 2023 draft and could be the 3-technique tackle that makes Matt Eberflus’ defense click — like Tommie Harris did for Lovie Smith’s defense in 2004-08.

Eberflus has made it clear that the 3-technique is the most critical position in his defense. The Bears’ biggest expense in free agency after Eberflus was hired was former Bengals defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi to fill that 3-technique spot. When Ogunjobi couldn’t pass his physical, the Bears turned to former Chargers defensive tackle Justin Jones.

Jones has been an active and intermittently effective defender — and a team leader who was named a captain after linebacker Roquan Smith was traded. But he hasn’t provided the impact the Bears need at that position.

Eberflus already has indicated interest in upgrading the position. The Bears played Jones at left defensive end for a few snaps against the Packers in Week 13 — to boost the edge rush, Eberflus said. And when asked Monday about Jones’ effectiveness at the 3-technique, he immediately referenced Jones’ trial at end.

“Justin’s done great in there. He’s done a good job,” Eberflus said. “We’re looking at him at defensive end, which will be cool for him to be able to look at that, but also play inside. We do a lot of movements inside — that really enhances his skill set.”

Eberflus doesn’t settle for anything less than stellar play at the 3-technique. When he was hired as defensive coordinator with the Colts in 2018, the Colts signed Denico Autry, who led the Colts with nine sacks in his first season.

When Autry’s effectiveness diminished in 2019, Colts general manager Chris Ballard made a bold move to get an upgrade — trading the No. 13 overall pick in the 2020 draft to the 49ers for DeForest Buckner (and moved Autry to defensive end). The Colts immediately gave Buckner a five-year, $105 million extension that made him the second-highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL behind Aaron Donald. That’s how important the 3-technique is to Matt Eberflus.

Eberflus moved Autry to end after acquiring Buckner. And he was enthusiastic about Jones having that same versatility.

“Absolutely,” Eberflus said. “That’s why we brought him here — because he can play all [defensive line] positions. The 5, the 9, the 6, [the] 3. He can play all those.”

The Bears (3-10), on pace for a top-3 spot in the 2023 draft, figure to have tempting trade-down options involving teams desperate for a quarterback. But Carter might be their best move, and he won’t last long.

And there’s the rub. Carter is projected to go No. 2 overall to the Seahawks (who have the Broncos’ first-round pick) in a mock draft by ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay — with the Bears taking Alabama’s Will Anderson at No. 3.

There’s a long way to go before everything shakes out in the 2023 draft. But there’s a possibility the Bears, who were one pick short of drafting Donald in 2014 (settling for cornerback Kyle Fuller), could be one pick short of getting Carter.

Whatever scenario ensues, it’ll be interesting to see if general manager Ryan Poles can maneuver the draft any better than predecessor Ryan Pace. No two drafts are a like, but the last time the Bears moved up from No. 3 to No. 2 in the draft to get their guy, it did not end well.

2a. The Bears (3-10) dropped one spot in the draft order over their bye week — from No. 2 to No. 3 after the Broncos (3-10) lost to the Chiefs.

If the Bears finish 3-14, they would be no lower than No. 3. If they finish 4-13, they would be no lower than No. 5.

2b. The Bears likely will lose all draft-order ties — strength-of-schedule — because they currently have the most difficult 17-game schedule in the NFL this season. Their opponents have a .572 winning percentage (125-93-3). The Packers are second at .561 (123-96-2).

3. Did You Know? If the Bears had beaten the Lions and Commanders, they’d have the 14th pick of the first round.

4. So much for the Robert Quinn reunion Sunday. Quinn, who was traded to the Eagles for a 2023 fourth-round draft pick, is on injured reserve after injuring his knee in practice.

The Eagles still are hoping Quinn can return for the playoffs, but he has not made a big impact since the trade — two tackles and two quarterback hits in five games (70 snaps).

5. But Sunday’s game will be a reunion for Eberflus and Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, who was the Colts’ offensive coordinator when Eberflus was their defensive coordinator in 2018-20.

“His office was right next to mine for three years. We were really close,” Eberflus said. “We lived in the same neighborhood. Families hung out together. He’s got a great family. He’s a great family man. He comes from a football family — his dad was a coach, brothers were coaches. And he’s a really good person.

Eberflus and Sirianni have another thing in common — both gave up play-calling to put more focus on the job of being a head coach and managing a team. The Eagles have won 18 of their last 21 regular-season games after starting 3-6 under Sirianni.

6. Wide Receivers Matter Dept.: Let the record show that the Eagles improvement started with quarterback Jalen Hurts, who won five of his last six regular-season starts in 2021 — but accelerated and reached another level with the addition of wide receiver A.J. Brown, who has 65 receptions for 1,020 yards and 10 touchdowns this season. Good players teach you how to win.

7. This week’s web poll question: Which would be a better indicator that the Bears’ rebuild is on the right track: competitive losses to the Super Bowl-contending Eagles and Bills — or a victory over the surging Lions?

8. A Bears defense that has an NFL-low 16 sacks and 34 pressures could be in for a long day against an Eagles team that leads the NFL in scoring, including 40, 35 and 48 points in its last three games. But the return of rookie defensive backs Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon — and a week off could give the Bears a fighting chance.

For what it’s worth, the Colts were 4-0 in the game following the bye in Eberflus’ four seasons as defensive coordinator. Last year the Colts had a Week 14 bye and beat the Patriots 27-17 in Week 15. Eberflus’ defense pitched a first-half shutout (23 plays, 103 yards) against a Patriots team that came in averaging 32.1 points in a seven-game winning streak (and also was coming off a bye).

Eberflus, in fact, has won eight of his last nine games coming off the bye, going back to his days coaching linebackers for the Cowboys.

9. Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith had a sack of Kenny Pickett and an interception of former Bears teammate Mitch Trubisky in a 16-14 road victory over the Steelers.

The Ravens (9-4) are 4-1 since acquiring Smith from the Bears for a second-round draft pick. Their defense is allowing 13.4 points per game in that span (second in the NFL), 276.2 yards (third) and 2.8 rushing yards per carry (first). The Ravens were 21st, 24th and 14th in those categories prior to trading for Smith.

10. Bear-ometer: 4-13 –vs. Eagles (L); vs. Bills (L); at Lions (L); vs. Vikings (W).

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Outfielder Ben DeLuzio wasn’t the statement signing that Cubs fans have been clamoring for since the winter meetings wrapped last week. But the Cubs will continue to add depth throughout the offseason — that isn’t a reason to panic.

DeLuzio agreed to terms on a minor-league contract with a spring training invite, a source confirmed. The 28-year-old outfielder made his major-league debut with the Cardinals in September. DeLuzio, a speedy defensive specialist, went 3-for-20 over the course of 22 major-league games. He hit .278 in Triple-A last year. The Cardinals non-tendered DeLuzio last month.

The Cubs remain active on the free agent market. As of Tuesday afternoon, shortstops Carlos Correa and Dansby Swanson remained available.

The Cubs also need to add catching depth, and the number of available catchers has begun to dwindle.

First, former Cubs star Willson Contreras signed with the Cardinals on a five-year, $87.5 million contract during the winter meetings. Since Monday, Christian V?zquez (three years, $30 million) has agreed to terms with the Twins, Mike Zunino has agreed to join the Guardians (one year, $6 million); and as part of a three-team trade, Sean Murphy has landed with the Braves and William Contreras with the Brewers.

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