The NHL officially entered into Phase 2 of their return to play hockey plan that will see 24 teams have a shot at the Stanley Cup.

But one thing that flew under the radar on Monday is that the voting ballots for the NHL awards (The Hart Memorial Trophy, James Norris Memorial Trophy, Calder Memorial Trophy, Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, Frank J. Selke Trophy, Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, King Clancy Trophy) that get decided by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association officially opened up.

If you frequent hockey twitter, you would've seen various writers and analysts tweeting about their picks for certain awards. TSN hockey analytics writer Travis Yost offered his opinion through the analytical lens in which he breaks down the game.

Yost had an interesting top three that hasn't really been tossed around out there: Artemi Panarin as the front runner, Leon Draisaitl as the runner-up and Elias Pettersson as the third and final placeholder.

As we're reminded every season, the Hart is defined as the "player judged most valuable to his team." If we look it solely from that perspective, Panarin simply made everyone around him way better, and conversely, when he was off the ice, the Rangers were near the bottom of the league in goals per 60 minutes of play (-0.8). He set a career-high in points with 95 (32 goals, 63 assists) in just 69 games. Certainly, a nice season, indeed.

But, that doesn't mean there's no arguments for Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon, among others.

It's a compelling and fascinating argument, no doubt, and we're only going to hear more of them going forward once the discourse picks up over the other awards.

We encourage you to read Yost's recent articles where he previews every playoff matchup, with his most recent being Panarin's Rangers battling the Carolina Hurricanes.