NHL Selects Finalists for Awards

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won the award a year ago, is one of three finalists for the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player. <br><br>The other

Wednesday, May 3rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won the award a year ago, is one of three finalists for the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player.

The other finalists are Pavel Bure of the Florida Panthers and Chris Pronger of the St. Louis Blues.

This is the fourth Hart nomination for Jagr, who finished second in 1995 and 1998. He earned his third consecutive and fourth career Art Ross Trophy as the NHL scoring leader with 96 points (42 goals and 54 assists) despite appearing in only 63 games.

Bure won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the league's goal-scoring leader with 58. Pronger is the first defenseman to be a Hart finalist since Ray Bourque finished second in 1990.

Also announced Wednesday were the finalists for six other annual awards: James Norris Memorial Trophy (defenseman), Calder Memorial Trophy (rookie), Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (sportsmanship), Frank J. Selke Trophy (defensive forward), Vezina Trophy (goaltending) and Jack Adams Award (coach).

The winners will be announced June 15 in Toronto.

Norris finalists for best defenseman are Rob Blake of Los Angeles, Nicklas Lidstrom of Detroit and Pronger.

The Calder choices for rookie of the year are Scott Gomez of New Jersey, Brad Stuart of San Jose and Mike York of the New York Rangers.

The Lady Byng candidates are Pavol Demitra of St. Louis and Lidstrom and Teemu Selanne of Anaheim.

The Selke nominees for outstanding defensive forward are Michal Handzus of the Blues, Mike Ricci of the Sharks and Steve Yzerman of the Red Wings.

The Vezina finalists for goaltending are Curtis Joseph of Toronto, Olaf Kolzig of Washington and Roman Turek of St. Louis,

The Adams Trophy coaching candidates are Joel Quenneville of St. Louis, Alkain Vigneault of Montreal and Ron Wilson of Washington.