The Race for the Calder Trophy

[doomscroll]

And:

I never understood this macro. If you’re a big fan of the NHL and use this site consistently, isn‘t it pretty much a given that you’re going to think about the Leafs pretty often like you would any other popular team?

 

[Rubi]

Relatively unknown Flames player Connor Zary is quietly moving up in the rookie scoring race. He's playing tonight and has picked up another pt giving him 15 in 20 games. He's 2nd behind Bedard in pts/gp.

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

Brock Faber with over 30 minutes of ice time tonight with Brodin and Spurgeon out, just what more can you say about his game beyond it being shockingly impressive?

And a call out today from Dom at the Athletic as well:

"How good exactly? He currently leads the league in Defensive Rating at plus-3.7. Not rookies — the whole league. He’s on pace to hit plus-11.7 which would be the best mark since 2007-08 for a rookie. If he keeps it up, he’s on track for a top-five season for a rookie defenseman in the analytics era."

16 Stats: Rangers are contenders, Brock Faber's defense, Sam Reinhart's contract

The Rangers have elite power-play and penalty-kill numbers that paper over their five-on-five woes; Brock Faber's off to a strong start.

theathletic.com

Rossi broke through the double digit goal count tonight too, while playing an incredibly responsible game. These two have consistently been amongst the best Wild players night in and night out this season.

Calder or not, they each deserve significant recognition for their starts and would be worthy players in a very high quality top 5 for this race.

 

[AKL]

I wonder when the last time a team had two players as finalist for the Calder trophy in the same season was.

 

[SteelCityCannon]

Man, so many guys having great rookie seasons. It’ll be Bedard but this is the best first year rookie class in recent memory. Fantilli has been awesome but our best rookie might be Voronkov. Dudes been a freight train.

 

[Happyhary9]

Actually, how do you measure how weak a team is? The Pens finished second to last with a 35.4 P% and Oilers second to last as well with 42.7 P%. Blackhawks currently second from the bottom and 33.3 P%.

What people are talking about is players directly around Bedard/Crosby/McDavid. Team P% is kinda irrelevant to there point scoring. All these guys were #1 centers and on #1 PP from the start. So you look at the top guys (not 3/4 liners) who play within and also who is on the PP.

Also what is more important (since we are talking about their scoring in rookie seasons) is how good we're the teams at scoring. Chicago is scoring at 2.36 gpg, Pitt scored 2.98 gpg and Edm scored 2.47. Also you need to look at the PP support. The Hawks PP is atrocious, Bedard only has 5 ppp. Were as Crosby had 47 ppp (close to half his points). Bedard has by far the worse support on his line and on the PP.

 

[Happyhary9]

You guys should watch a Hawks game once in awhile. Bedard not only scored a goal but set up guys like 5 more times, all of which were flubbed of course. This team is an absolute joke, and Bedard would be running away with this if the entire team around him didn’t belong in the AHL.

It has been a joke to watch these guys try and covert of passes from Bedard. Forgot which game it was but Bedard set up a guy flwith an open net, he only had to elevate the puck like 10 inches to get it over a D man sliding on his stomach in desperation, nope shot it right into the guy on the ice.

 

[Wayward Son]

Great crop of rookies this year. Faber is a beast!

 

[Wasted Talent]

I wonder when the last time a team had two players as finalist for the Calder trophy in the same season was.

Surprisingly often. Last time was 2013-14, happened 4 times since 2000.

Johnson/Palat in 2014
Toews/Kane in 2008
Malkin/Staal in 2007
Kovalchuk/Heatley in 2002

 

[AKL]

Surprisingly often. Last time was 2013-14, happened 4 times since 2000.

Johnson/Palat in 2014
Toews/Kane in 2008
Malkin/Staal in 2007
Kovalchuk/Heatley in 2002

Interesting, thanks for looking it up for me. 2002 would have been a fun year to be a Thrashers fan

 

[ThatGuy22]

Surprisingly often. Last time was 2013-14, happened 4 times since 2000.

Johnson/Palat in 2014
Toews/Kane in 2008
Malkin/Staal in 2007
Kovalchuk/Heatley in 2002

You broke my brain...


Malkin and Staal were rookies together? How do I not remember that

 

[Luceni]

Surprisingly often. Last time was 2013-14, happened 4 times since 2000.

Johnson/Palat in 2014
Toews/Kane in 2008
Malkin/Staal in 2007
Kovalchuk/Heatley in 2002

Some yummy and impressive Combos/carreers right there. The future for Wild might not look bad after all, if Faber/Rossi keep developing and have an impact on the team like some of the players on that list.

 

[x Tame Impala]

This thread is going to be 1000+ more posts of people speculating and arguing that Bedard won’t/shouldn’t win the Calder and it’s all futile. He’s winning.

 

[majormajor]

Faber / Rossi
Fantilli / Voronkov
Mintyukov / Carlsson

So many good rookie duos this year. I am not even sure that the Wild duo is the best bet to be Calder Finalists. FWIW I would have Faber and Mintyukov on there right now.

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

This thread is going to be 1000+ more posts of people speculating and arguing that Bedard won’t/shouldn’t win the Calder and it’s all futile. He’s winning.

To me, it is more entertaining to read about other rookies performing well around the league than read complaints about Bedard's linemates holding him back for the millionth time already.

 

[clydesdale line]

To me, it is more entertaining to read about other rookies performing well around the league than read complaints about Bedard's linemates holding him back for the millionth time already.

Truth hurts.. and it's still not stopping him from producing. Just incredible really.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Faber / Rossi
Fantilli / Voronkov
Mintyukov / Carlsson

So many good rookie duos this year. I am not even sure that the Wild duo is the best bet to be Calder Finalists. FWIW I would have Faber and Mintyukov on there right now.

I think right now

Faber
Bedard
Rossi/hughes

Are finalist, Mintyukov slowed down a bit with most of our talent injured, tho I think he’ll start to heat up a bit when they return

 

[Dion TheFluff]

I think right now

Faber
Bedard
Rossi/hughes

Are finalist, Mintyukov slowed down a bit with most of our talent injured, tho I think he’ll start to heat up a bit when they return

not that I think they would be finalist but I think Zary, Woll and Voronkov deserve to be in the discussion as well.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

not that I think they would be finalist but I think Zary, Woll and Voronkov deserve to be in the discussion as well.

Ya it’s a big pool of players that deserve mentions, didn’t list guys like fantilli cooley brink or carlsson that also prob in that discussion with woll Zary and voronkov

Tough to say but the 4 I listed are the favorites right now imo, but that could change next week. It’s a pretty good race(after bedard ).

 

[Dion TheFluff]

Ya it’s a big pool of players that deserve mentions, didn’t list guys like fantilli cooley brink or carlsson that also prob in that discussion with woll Zary and voronkov

Tough to say but the 4 I listed are the favorites right now imo, but that could change next week. It’s a pretty good race(after bedard ).

Faber has been super impressive to me. Already playing over 23 minutes shutting down the other teams top players.

Already looking like the new Slavin!

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Faber has been super impressive to me. Already playing over 23 minutes shutting down the other teams top players.

Already looking like the new Slavin!

That fiala trade worked out well for both sides


Kings got a top line winger

Wild got a young min munching shutdown dmen (+ Ohgren but idk how he’s doing)

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

That fiala trade worked out well for both sides


Kings got a top line winger

Wild got a young min munching shutdown dmen (+ Ohgren but idk how he’s doing)

I like Faber a lot, and it probably worked out very well in a team-building sense, but it also would pretty sweet to be watching Kaprizov + Rossi and Boldy + Fiala for 40 minutes per game.

 

[WPGDEVILS]

Faber / Rossi
Fantilli / Voronkov
Mintyukov / Carlsson

So many good rookie duos this year. I am not even sure that the Wild duo is the best bet to be Calder Finalists. FWIW I would have Faber and Mintyukov on there right now.

Hughes and Nemec

 

[A1LeafNation]

Man, so many guys having great rookie seasons. It’ll be Bedard but this is the best first year rookie class in recent memory. Fantilli has been awesome but our best rookie might be Voronkov. Dudes been a freight train.

https://x.com/BrianHedger/status/1734979507000393813?t=Z6McvB44tjS4VbWNvWMMcg&s=09

 

[wetcoast]

Maybe, look we all witness the kid raw talent, but he also sitting 751th of 757 forward at -14 points.

Right now, statistically speaking Chicago win more game when he off the ice.
If he was on a contender, I say he would miss quite a lot of shift and would have to adapt his game to the rigor of being positive on the score sheet.

This is such a misguided notion here as the other teams are playing their top guys against Bedard and he is a true rookie so that plus minus will of course look bad but make no mistake Bedard is the frontrunner for the Calder and for good reason.