Carey Price early Conn Smythe leader

Each year the Conn Smythe trophy is awarded to the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Just as during the regular season with their Player Power Rankings, Hockey Prospectus will use its metric analysis to measure which postseason player is most deserving of the coveted award.

These rankings are based on player production in terms of Hockey Prospectus' GVT valuation metric. If you are unfamiliar with GVT and how it works, you can find more here.

One glance at the rankings below and you can see a number of goalies have had some big success early in each series. While the stoppers may stay hot, expect them to drop back as the playoffs progress. For starters, some will be eliminated with their teams. Others will simply be passed by top-producing skaters. In the meantime, however, their contributions have been notable and set up an interesting race as the march to the Cup continues.

To see how all the postseason players stack up through the early stages of Round 1, you must be an ESPN Insider.

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