Calder eligibility

[ChilliBilly]

From what I can find:

To be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, a player cannot have played more than 25 games in any single preceding season nor in six or more games in each of any two preceding seasons in any major professional league. Beginning in 1990-91, a player must not have attained his 26th birthday by Sept.

What is "major professional league"? Does anyone know a list of them?

In particular, would Kuzmenko be eligible if he were 7 months younger?

 

[FilHronek Orchestra]

We don’t have Jim Benning anymore. RIP “yearly Calder finalists”.

 

[RobertKron]

From what I can find:

To be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, a player cannot have played more than 25 games in any single preceding season nor in six or more games in each of any two preceding seasons in any major professional league. Beginning in 1990-91, a player must not have attained his 26th birthday by Sept.

What is "major professional league"? Does anyone know a list of them?

In particular, would Kuzmenko be eligible if he were 7 months younger?

The "major" pro league thing seems like a weird old thing that was probably intended to exclude WHA players or something like that, and is no longer relevant. Panarin, for example, played the six seasons before his calder in the KHL, as did Kaprizov. Seider played in the SHL and AHL.

 

[rypper]

From what I can find:

To be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, a player cannot have played more than 25 games in any single preceding season nor in six or more games in each of any two preceding seasons in any major professional league. Beginning in 1990-91, a player must not have attained his 26th birthday by Sept.

What is "major professional league"? Does anyone know a list of them?

In particular, would Kuzmenko be eligible if he were 7 months younger?

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it's any league that isn't a junior league and is considered the top league in that country. Ie KHL, SHL, Liiga etc count but lesser leagues like Allsvensken, MHL do not.

But then again I don't know if that's true because Panarin played a ton in the KHL and still won.

 

[MS]

That is just leftover verbiage from the 1970s.

 

[Hit the post]

That is just leftover verbiage from the 1970s.

I seem to recall Ivan Hlinka getting some consideration for the Calder. To which the vet Czech Canuck burst out laughing “35 year old rookie”.

They’ve changed the rules a bit since then I think.

 

[me2]

That is just leftover verbiage from the 1970s.

Yeah the WHA. Case in point. Gretzky won the Hart trophy and tired for most points for the season in his first year in the NHL but did not qualify for the Calder because of his WHA (major league) experience.

I don't think it extends to European leagues only NA NHL competitors.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

peter stastny, makarov, bure, selanne, forsberg, alfredsson, ovechkin, malkin, panarin, kaprizov, seider, and petey all had pro experience in europe before coming over and winning the calder

so yeah just a bs rule made up to discredit players who played in the WHA

meaningless today because there is no “major professional league” other than the NHL that anyone could play in that would prevent them from winning the calder.

 

[geebster]

meaningless today because there is no “major professional league” other than the NHL that anyone could play in that would prevent them from winning the calder.

You seem to be underrating my beer league.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

From what I can find:

To be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, a player cannot have played more than 25 games in any single preceding season nor in six or more games in each of any two preceding seasons in any major professional league. Beginning in 1990-91, a player must not have attained his 26th birthday by Sept.

What is "major professional league"? Does anyone know a list of them?

In particular, would Kuzmenko be eligible if he were 7 months younger?

The 26th birthday rule is unofficially known as the Sergei Makarov rule.

This rule was created after Sergei Makarov won the Calder in 1990 after posting 86 points in 80 games in his rookie season, while being 31 years old.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Unrelated soapbox, but I love the salt from all the Bunting/Panarin ROY nominations. Bunting finally breaks through after 5 years in a tier 2 league and everyone loses their minds? Panarin outrage made more sense, but with every European prospect coming over with good pedigree, what's the first thing we hear from dissenting voices "The NHL is such a different league though", "North American ice", etc. and then they do a 180 when they're actually good over here too.

 

[Cancuks]

Unrelated soapbox, but I love the salt from all the Bunting/Panarin ROY nominations. Bunting finally breaks through after 5 years in a tier 2 league and everyone loses their minds? Panarin outrage made more sense, but with every European prospect coming over with good pedigree, what's the first thing we hear from dissenting voices "The NHL is such a different league though", "North American ice", etc. and then they do a 180 when they're actually good over here too.

The issue with Bunting is he played 5 games in one season and 21 in another before his "rookie season." That's 26 games which should disqualify him but didn't I guess because he didn't hit 6 games in the first season.

 

[MS]

peter stastny, makarov, bure, selanne, forsberg, alfredsson, ovechkin, malkin, panarin, kaprizov, seider, and petey all had pro experience in europe before coming over and winning the calder

so yeah just a bs rule made up to discredit players who played in the WHA

meaningless today because there is no “major professional league” other than the NHL that anyone could play in that would prevent them from winning the calder.

I've talked about this before on the HOH board, but to me this was a totally reasonable rule made ridiculous by the existence of the unicorn that was Wayne Gretzky.

In a world where Wayne Gretzky didn't exist and this rule didn't exist. the 79-80 Calder would have been reduced to a competition between veteran WHA pros like Real Cloutier, Mark Howe, Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson. And the award would almost certainly have gone to a 25 y/o Mike Rogers over a teenage Ray Bourque, which would have been considered a bit of a travesty in terms of the intent of the award.

So it made sense, in theory.

But instead, the rule ended up looking absolutely stupid because it inadvertently blocked the greatest player in the history of hockey from winning the Calder as the youngest player in the NHL leading the NHL in scoring.

 

[MS]

The issue with Bunting is he played 5 games in one season and 21 in another before his "rookie season." That's 26 games which should disqualify him but didn't I guess because he didn't hit 6 games in the first season.

It's such a stupid technicality.

If the limit is 25 games, it should be 25 games. The fact you're allowed to play up to 30 games if it's split just the right way over multiple years is ludicrous. And it isn't the first time it's come up.

That 6 game thing has screwed guys over in reverse, as well. Slava Kozlov had only played 24 NHL games but lost his rookie eligibility for 1993-94 because it was 7+17.

 

[Tim Calhoun]

I had totally forgotten about that 6 game rule. It came up at some point with Alex Auld in 05-06 (not that he ever had a chance of contending for the Calder that year, but some posters here mentioned it).

 

[AppleHoneySauce]

What if they just make it a flat 20 games NHL experience. Would allow for the normal 9 game tryouts at least 2 years for the ELC. 26 and under I think is fine for Age.

 

[MS]

What if they just make it a flat 20 games NHL experience. Would allow for the normal 9 game tryouts at least 2 years for the ELC. 26 and under I think is fine for Age.

25 has kind of always been the number so I think it should just be left at that as a flat number.

I'd also argue it should be 15 for goalies. Ed Belfour winning despite having a 23-game season under his belt always seemed weird, and the 25 games for goalies has also led to weird stuff like Jamie Storr being named to the ART in two different years.

 

[ChilliBilly]

Yeah, pretty much what I thought. They should introduce a new trophy for best player in the NHL in his first year, and reserve the Calder for player under 21.

 

[Hit the post]

25 has kind of always been the number so I think it should just be left at that as a flat number.

I'd also argue it should be 15 for goalies. Ed Belfour winning despite having a 23-game season under his belt always seemed weird, and the 25 games for goalies has also led to weird stuff like Jamie Storr being named to the ART in two different years.

Ken Dryden won the Conn Smyth trophy in his first taste of the post-season for the Habs. Then he won the Calder trophy to *FOLLOWING* season.

Funny thing is, the Boston Ruins originally drafted Dryden.

 

[Jyrki21]

25 has kind of always been the number so I think it should just be left at that as a flat number.

I'd also argue it should be 15 for goalies. Ed Belfour winning despite having a 23-game season under his belt always seemed weird, and the 25 games for goalies has also led to weird stuff like Jamie Storr being named to the ART in two different years.

I was going to say, Ed Belfour's win always seemed more eyebrow-raising to me than examples like Bunting. He played in over a quarter of the season's games as a goalie! Plus nine playoff games the following year... and then was a rookie?

 

[Siludin]

I had totally forgotten about that 6 game rule. It came up at some point with Alex Auld in 05-06 (not that he ever had a chance of contending for the Calder that year, but some posters here mentioned it).

I think there were times when his SV% was pretty good, plus he started 30 games in a row.
But that year's rookie class was impossible to top.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I've talked about this before on the HOH board, but to me this was a totally reasonable rule made ridiculous by the existence of the unicorn that was Wayne Gretzky.

In a world where Wayne Gretzky didn't exist and this rule didn't exist. the 79-80 Calder would have been reduced to a competition between veteran WHA pros like Real Cloutier, Mark Howe, Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson. And the award would almost certainly have gone to a 25 y/o Mike Rogers over a teenage Ray Bourque, which would have been considered a bit of a travesty in terms of the intent of the award.

So it made sense, in theory.

But instead, the rule ended up looking absolutely stupid because it inadvertently blocked the greatest player in the history of hockey from winning the Calder as the youngest player in the NHL leading the NHL in scoring.

not that they didn’t make it a travesty later with stastny and makarov

but i think the rule was really in place for before the merger, to dissuade young guys from starting their careers in the WHA before the NHL changed its minimum age. so guys like ken linseman, mark napier, and later messier, goulet, gartner, and yes gretzky. it’s just none of those other guys ever caught a whiff of the calder, so when it came time to enforce their rule it fell on gretzky.

 

[VanJack]

The "major" pro league thing seems like a weird old thing that was probably intended to exclude WHA players or something like that, and is no longer relevant. Panarin, for example, played the six seasons before his calder in the KHL, as did Kaprizov. Seider played in the SHL and AHL.

So this means Jack Rathbone isn't eligible for the Calder this season? He played eight games after he signed in the COVID year; and nine games last season before being dispatched to Abbotsford.

I always assumed he continues to be classified as a rookie in the NHL.

 

[innitfam]

So this means Jack Rathbone isn't eligible for the Calder this season? He played eight games after he signed in the COVID year; and nine games last season before being dispatched to Abbotsford.

I always assumed he continues to be classified as a rookie in the NHL.

6+ games in 2 seasons = no Calder eligibility

 

[wetcoast]

It's such a stupid technicality.

If the limit is 25 games, it should be 25 games. The fact you're allowed to play up to 30 games if it's split just the right way over multiple years is ludicrous. And it isn't the first time it's come up.

That 6 game thing has screwed guys over in reverse, as well. Slava Kozlov had only played 24 NHL games but lost his rookie eligibility for 1993-94 because it was 7+17.

Evan Bouchard as well this year compared to Bunting.