Who will win the calder this year? (poll)

[yave1964]

  Presenting the four top candidates for the Calder Trophy as the leagues top rookie:

 

Elias Pettersson: 

CASE FOR Led all rookies in scoring with 65 points and 27 goals.

CASE AGAINST Scored 10 goals in his first 10 games with a total of 17 points during that time, which means he fell off badly from then on, over his past 60 games he has 17 goals and only 48 points, decent numbers but far from earth shattering. 

 

JORDAN BINNINGTON

CASE FOR He was insane going 23-5-1 with a microscopic 1.89 goals against and a .927 save pct. as well as 5 shutouts lifting the Blues out of the grave and turning them into serious legit Western Conference contenders. 

CASE AGAINST He essentially only had about a half a season in net so while he has brilliant numbers it isn't a large body of work.

 

BRADY TKACHUK

CASE FOR 22 goals and 45 points second among all rookies, also 75 PIMs displaying a nasty streak and an edge looking like potentially the new Marchand.

CASE AGAINST Points are clearly behind Pettersson and while his numbers are very good he was buried behind the mountain of bad things that happened in Ottawa this year.

 

RASMUS DAHLIN 

CASE FOR 42 points with 19 of them on the power play second among all rookies in ice time all at the tender age of 18.

CASE AGAINST Like Tkachuk he plays for an unloved unwatchable team.

 

 These four. Honorable mention to Andreas Johnsson and Miro Heiskanen who have played key roles for playoff teams, same with Cirelli and Svechnikov.

 

 

[yave1964]

  My vote goes to Binnington as the other three played for also rans. Yeah I know he only played half a season but lets be honest, after early November Pettersson was very ordinary so I think that Binnington was elite for a longer time than Pettersson was.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Hmm....halfway through the season, I would have gone along with everyone else and said Pettersson is the runaway favorite.

But other rooks did step up and create an atmosphere where people started to look beyond Vancouver for outstanding first year players.
I am biased towards Anthony Cirelli of Tampa Bay as I think he has to be one of the most UNKNOWN good rooks out there, simply due to the fact he plays on a star laden team and much of what he does comes from the 3rd line and from a PK perspective.

But I realize this award is very numbers and presentation driven, and because of that, even though guys like Binnington have absolutely made the difference in his team's season (sorry but the Blues aren't where they are with Jake Allen still as the number one), and guys like Dahlin and Tkachuk have done wonders on teams mired in bottom feeding roles, I feel Pettersson, with his great start, hype behind it, and the fact he plays in hockey crazy Vancouver, should be enough, along with the left over fumes from when he fell off, to get him the award.

But I think, safe to say, we all got treated to a nice variety of rookie players performing in different capacities, in a variety of scenarios (forwards, defense, goalies), and REALLY make a case for themselves where one can say, "if it wasn't for player X, THEY would have won it"

I just think Pettersson rides the wave right into the Calder....but that doesn't mean I feel he doesn't deserve it, just that he has that advantage of early performance + early season hype and people will remember that more the more obscure (though equally impressive) performances by his rookie peers.

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

I think that Pettersson WILL win it,  his start captured imaginations everywhere but IMHO really he has been very ordinary since the first month or so of the season and while yes, his blazing hot start surely counts so do his average numbers since then.

 

 But the same has to be said for Binnington. He missed the first two months of the season in the AHL and although he has been red hot his partial season has to count as well. I would personally vote for Binnington but I can see how most would not and I am ok with it.

[OccamsRazor]

1 hour ago, yave1964 said:

November Pettersson was very ordinary so I think that Binnington was elite for a longer time than Pettersson was.

 

In the month of december he had 6 goals and 17 total points in 14 games...that is not to shabby after November.

 

However i give the nod to him still as a 20 year old.

 

And Bennington has only played 31 games so kind of a short period on a hot team and Jake Allen has even seen his numbers drastically go up.

 

He also has about 5 and a half years on Pettersson.

 

And Pettersson i think has had fatigue set in down the stretch headed towards the playoffs because he just doesn't have much help.

[yave1964]

57 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

In the month of december he had 6 goals and 17 total points in 14 games...that is not to shabby after November.

 

However i give the nod to him still as a 20 year old.

 

And Bennington has only played 31 games so kind of a short period on a hot team and Jake Allen has even seen his numbers drastically go up.

 

He also has about 5 and a half years on Pettersson.

 

And Pettersson i think has had fatigue set in down the stretch headed towards the playoffs because he just doesn't have much help.

Absolutely no problem with anyone who would cast their ballot for Pettersson, none. Like I said though, 10 goals in his first 10 games then only 17 from that point on, that has to carry some weight as well. 

 

  I am kind of surprised that 18 year old Dahlin hasn't gotten more love, frankly he had a hell of a season, getting better and stronger as his team fell apart around him. I always have a fondness for defenseman, this kid is the real deal and acquitted himself quite well.

[OccamsRazor]

2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

I am kind of surprised that 18 year old Dahlin hasn't gotten more love, frankly he had a hell of a season, getting better and stronger as his team fell apart around him. I always have a fondness for defenseman, this kid is the real deal and acquitted himself quite well.

 

Oh don't worry you know who will be here real soon to straighten us all out i don't want to steal any of his fire...

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

  I am kind of surprised that 18 year old Dahlin hasn't gotten more love, frankly he had a hell of a season, getting better and stronger as his team fell apart around him. I always have a fondness for defenseman, this kid is the real deal and acquitted himself quite well.

 

I'm not.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT going to crap on the season Dahlin had. You have an excellent point that he acquitted himself well. Very well. He played all 82 games, got himself 9 G and 44 Pts overall, so very nice for a rookie defenseman.

But I did a little stat digging, and Mikhail Sergachev last year as a rookie, got 9G and 40 Pts, pretty much what Dahlin got this season, and people were like, "Oh, that is nice, very nice season for the young rookie D"....and they weren't wrong.
But there was never any real talk of Calder (and they weren't wrong about that either), so I don't see why, numbers-wise, Dahlin would rate that kind of talk, especially when you have Jordan Binnington who lead the Blues' revival and Elias Pettersson and his 66 pt rookie season standing right next to him.

 

Again, 44 pts, rookie defenseman on a losing team....very impressive, very nice (Victor Hedman, 20 pts and Erik Karlsson, 26pts didn't get that in their rookie seasons....in fact, Hedman didn't crack 30 pts till his FIFTH year in the league!), but still, since the award IS numbers driven, I don't see how he can compare to Pettersson and Binnington, albeit all three are in different positions.