I honestly thought that Jack Eichel would have a better rookie season than he did and if it would be he and McDavid in a 2 man race but things don't always pan out like that and I have to wonder if the GM's reaction to losing the draft lottery affected his time in Buffalo and really his career trajectory, even if his SC last year sure helps his resume.
Eichel didn't have a bad rookie year though, only 7 points less than MacKinnon for instance, who won the Calder two years prior. 16th highest offensive total for a rookie from the low scoring "DPE 2.0" 2007-08 through 2016-17 (most of whom weren't D+1).
I don't think this makes much sense as a theory, Buffalo was +27 points and Arizona was +22 points from 2014-15 to 2015-16.
Its not terribly difficult to be the best offensive player on a bad team - most of the numbers produced are inconsequential. Bedard is so much fun to watch, but Faber is shutting down the oppositions best night after night, improving every partners game, playing 25+ minutes in all situations a night AND thriving. I don't care about any of the extraneous stuff, Faber is just flat out doing so much more to help his team win. Its an easy choice for me.
I get what you are saying but Faber is not close to being on an Island. There is 5 guys on the ice not just Dmen. Minny has a lot of good two way guys and guy who can possess the puck, which makes life easier on the D. Meanwhile the Hawks blow. They have Bedard as really the only NHL top 6 forward. Then on D they have Jones (who is solid) and mostly rookies. KK has some skill but he is a 19 yo rookie Dman. The biggest issue for the Hawks is Bedard is their only legit good puck possession player. They can't possess the puck much in the ozone, hence they spend so much time in their own zone.
See that’s exactly it. Faber’s best argument is one of Bedard’s arguments, absolutely no help to accomplish a monumental task. Faber is proving to be a defensively stellar 30-35 point Dman in that role. Bedard is looking like a 40 goal, 80 point centre in that role. Their results in similar positions aren’t even in the same league.
If it’s so terribly easy to thrive in an offensive role on an offensively inept team, why is the next best player (his linemate) on pace for 55 points? Hall won a Hart for producing or such little help, Bedard doing it at 18 is generational. Unless you think his performance tonight was inconsequential, that argument doesn’t hold steam once your realize he is Chicago’s offense, and the reason they have any chance at winning most nights.
You are trying to downplay the crap out of Bedard. He doesn't just lead his team in scoring, he leads by a big margin. The second leading scorer on the Hawks is his linemate Kurashev who is 12 points behind ar 20 points. Also prior to this season Kurashevs highest point total was 25 points. He is on pace to shatter that because of Bedard. Also if it is so easy to be the best offensive player on a bad team, go find me a bunch of rookies who lead their team in scoring over the years let alone by over a 30% margin like Bedard. Bedard is not your normal rookie, he is a franchise center right now. You put Bedard on Minnesota and he is their #1 center and puts up 100+ with Kaprizov on his wing.
Rossi had his own obstacles to overcome and lost a whole season due to illness post covid. Development is not linear, he is a prime example why age should not be in consideration for the trophy imo.
Fabers best argument is that he is currently atop the entire league in defensive metrics, while providing positive offensive contributions and his team is winning games with only $50MM of cap rostered players. You could argue he is transformational when it comes to defensive play at this level, the eye test has him as an extremely unique talent in that regard.
Let's not just throw this out there like it's a universally accepted truth.
Net negative when it comes to stable defensive play? I think that was pretty well accepted on the Wild board, with all the complaints about his and zucc’s turnovers throughout the first 20 games.
This Wild fan is thrilled with Faber and Rossi's performances this year, but don't consider them serious contenders for the Calder unless Bedard implodes somehow. There is no doubt that GM's would salivate at the chance to grab Faber, a RHD with size, strength, great skating, great D and sneaky good puck skills and offense, but any GM who would take him over Bedard is unfit for the job.
As an 18 year old rookie it actually is.
Bedard isn't just leading the Blacks Hawks offensively he could very well have double the goals and 20-30 more points than the next Black Hawk player and they have such a young Dman group which makes it even more outstanding.
Voters love to watch the obvious as well.
Faber is having a great rookie season but with Bedard doing Bedard things it's his to lose IMO.
I know I should expect as much from a guy with Brock Faber literally as his profile, but no Faber isn’t the best defensive Dman in the league and he definitely doesn’t have the best metrics league wide. One model says that, and it’s one with bad entanglement issues and as much as you’ve been claiming otherwise Minnesota is an extremely defensively friendly environment. All of Spurgeon, Brodin, and Bogosian actually have a better xGA/60 while not playing with Faber than Faber has produced. Not claiming Bogosian and Spurgeon are better defensively than Faber is (Brodin definitely is), just showing how much Minnesota’s team and style help Faber succeed. Faber is very high in a lot of important metrics, but Bogosian and Brodin are higher in every one.
I assess players individually and have stated that consistently in here, the teammate argument is not ever going to convince me of anything and I am not going to argue against peoples fantasies for what he could be doing. I’m not trying to ruin people’s fun in that regard, but it has little to no bearing on how I view players.
