Originally posted on The Score
Somehow, we've already reached the end of the regular season, with the Stanley Cup Playoffs mere hours away. That jarring fact means it's time to look back on the 82-game slate and pick who we think should win the NHL's six major annual awards.
We've been ranking four of these (Hart, Norris, Vezina, and Calder) monthly, so just like last year, the votes from the editors responsible for those honors are worth double the standard amount. We denoted those editors using asterisks in the charts.
Aside from the expert votes, the regular point system applies. That's three points for first, two for second, and one for third. Also, remember these are not actual award votes, which would be submitted to the PHWA. We simply created our own hypothetical ballots for this exercise.
Here's how our crew voted:
Tocchet deserves credit for surprisingly guiding his Vancouver Canucks to the Pacific Division title about 16 months after replacing the fired Bruce Boudreau. He inherited a talented squad, but it still greatly exceeded expectations in his first full campaign behind Vancouver's bench.
Brunette has less to work with on the Nashville Predators, so it's no wonder he nearly matched Tocchet in our voting. Brunette and general manager Barry Trotz famously forbade their players from seeing U2 at The Sphere during a February stop in Las Vegas. Nashville went 14-0-2 in 16 games after that and completely turned around its season.
Knoblauch resurrected the Edmonton Oilers upon taking over in mid-November (though he also inherited a good team featuring two of the best players in the league). Montgomery - the reigning winner of this award - kept the Patrice Bergeron-less Boston Bruins competitive.
Barkov wins unanimously here in what would be his second Selke triumph in the last four seasons. The Florida Panthers captain is always in the conversation for this honor, as he's been one of the best defensive forwards in the NHL for nearly a decade.
Matthews' defensive game has dramatically improved over the last few seasons, and only Evgeni Malkin had more takeaways than the Toronto Maple Leafs sniper among NHL skaters in 2023-24. Matthews has never been a Selke finalist, but he deserves to be one this time.
Hintz, Suzuki, Kopitar, Staal, and Reinhart round out our downballot votes, and a case can be made for any of them to finish third. Each forward has demonstrated defensive prowess while contributing to varying degrees offensively.
This one might've been unanimous had Bedard not missed 14 games with a broken jaw, but Faber deserves praise for playing the final two months with broken ribs. However, it's hard to argue Bedard isn't worthy of claiming the Calder. Despite missing time, the Chicago Blackhawks phenom still led all rookies in goals (22), assists (39), and points (61).
It's also impressive that Faber and Hughes tied for second among the class in points (47) considering they're defensemen, and the Minnesota Wild blue-liner logged nearly 25 minutes per game (24:58) to top all rookie skaters. The New Jersey Devils rearguard helped quarterback his team's power play and recorded over 21 minutes per contest.
Luke's brother, Quinn, had himself a season that rightfully earns him first-place votes across the board here. The Canucks defenseman led all NHLers at the position in assists (75), points (92), and even-strength points (54) while tying for 10th among the league's skaters in average ice time (24:41).
Josi topped all blue-liners in goals (23) and shots on goal (268) and ranked third in points (85). That's a commendable campaign for a player who turns 34 on June 1, especially since his analytic figures were also favorable.
Makar - who, like Josi, has won the Norris before - had a very good 2023-24, even by his lofty standards. Considering the dominance of his two aforementioned counterparts, it feels right that our crew collectively tabbed Makar as the third-place finisher.
Everyone in our crew agrees on this one, and with good reason. Hellebuyck is a lock to be a finalist for the fourth time in his career and should take home the hardware for the second time after winning it in 2019-20. The Winnipeg Jets goaltender led all NHL netminders who played at least 28 games in save percentage (.921) while ranking third in games played (60) and second in victories (37).
Hellebuyck also led the league by wide margins in goals saved above expected (32.81) and goals saved above average (29.77) at five-on-five. Demko finished second to the Jets goalie among qualified netminders in save percentage (.918) with just two fewer wins while playing nine fewer games.
Bobrovsky showed few signs of decline at age 35, winning 36 contests in 58 appearances. He posted a .915 save percentage and tied for the league lead with six shutouts.
MacKinnon has come up short numerous times in past MVP races, but he's made it abundantly clear that this should be his year. The Colorado Avalanche superstar led all NHL skaters in standings points above replacement, wins above replacement, and goals above replacement this season. His expected goals for and scoring for percentages were superb, and his conventional stats were sublime.
Matthews fell short of 70 goals, but his 69 tallies were the most by an NHLer since Mario Lemieux notched the same number in 1995-96. Given his exceptional offensive exploits and his success on the defensive end, the American center would be a worthy Hart runner-up.
McDavid managed to post 100 assists in 2023-24 despite missing six games, and Kucherov did the same. The Tampa Bay Lightning winger led the NHL with 144 points, but he collected 53 of those on the power play, and his above-replacement numbers weren't as strong as his three competitors here. Matthews and McDavid rank second and third, respectively, in all three (SPAR, WAR, and GAR), which illustrates their elite all-around play.
(Analytics sources: Natural Stat Trick, Evolving Hockey)
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Originally posted on The Score
Published: 7 months ago
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