David Pastrnak predicts this Bruins rival to win Hart Trophy in 2019-20

Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak is coming off the best season of his NHL career, but he's not picking himself to win the Hart Trophy in the upcoming 2019-20 campaign.

No, he's predicting one of the Bruins' top rivals, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, will take home the league's MVP award next season.

#Bruins Pastrnak picks #leafs Auston Matthews to win Hart Trophy in 2019-20.

"The biggest thing is for him to be healthy ... Last season he was better in the playoffs than the yr before in the playoffs. That shows (he's) moving forward. He's an unbelievable player."
— Mike Zeisberger (@zeisberger) August 15, 2019

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Pastrnak's teammates Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron could be contenders for the Hart Trophy next year as well, but his pick of Matthews is a good one.

The Leafs center tallied a career-high 73 points (36 goals, 37 assists) despite injury limiting him to just 68 games last season. Assuming the 21-year-old center plays close to a full 2019-20 season, it's quite possible he could win the MVP given his extraordinary scoring and playmaking talents. Matthews has scored 111 goals with 94 assists in 212 career games for Toronto.

Individual awards are nice to win, but the only thing Leafs fans care about is advancing past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Leafs have been eliminated in Game 7 of the first round by Pastrnak and the Bruins in each of last season years. In fact, three of Toronto's last four playoff appearances ended with a Game 7 first-round defeat to the B's at TD Garden in Boston.