The NHL recently announced the finalists for their
individual awards, which will be presented to the winners in a ceremony in
Toronto next month following the Stanley Cup Finals.
Here’s the list of nominees in each category and my picks
for the winners. As always I’ll be interested in reading your comments, folks,
just keep it clean.
VEZINA TROPHY (Top goaltender): Martin Brodeur, New Jersey
Devils; Henrik Lundqvist, NY Rangers; Evgeny Nabokov, San Jose Sharks.
My Pick: Brodeur. Tied for most games played with Nabokov
with 77, was second in wins behind Nabokov with 44 and was fifth behind Nabokov
in GAA with a 2.17 average. However, what clinches it for me was his .920 save
percentage, superior to Nabokov’s .910 and Lundqvist’s .912. He faced the
fourth highest shots of all goalies this season and made the second-most saves.
NORRIS TROPHY (Top Defenseman): Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins;
Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings; Dion Phaneuf, Calgary Flames.
My Pick: Lidstrom. Not only did he lead all defensemen in
assists and points but also in plus-minus with +40, well above Chara’s +14 and
Phaneuf’s +12. Lidstrom is the best all-round defenseman playing today.
CALDER TROPHY (Top Rookie):
Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals; Patrick Kane, Chicago
Blackhawks; Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks.
My Pick: Kane, who led all rookies in assists and points
after making the jump from Junior A despite his small size (5-9,160). Kane not
only rose to meet lofty expectations, he excelled and led the Blackhawks in
scoring.
LADY BYNG(Sportsmanship): Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings;
Jason Pominville, Buffalo Sabres;Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning.
My Pick: Datsyuk. He finished fourth in overall points,
second in overall assists, led the league in plus-minus with +41 and led the
Wings in scoring, all while only racking up a mere 20 minutes in penalties.
Proof that you can excel at both ends of the rink and still play a clean game.
SELKE TROPHY (Top Defensive Forward): Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit
Red Wings; John Madden, New Jersey Devils; Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red
Wings.
My pick: Datsyuk. Madden is more of a pure defensive forward
but Datsyuk’s defensive game is every bit as strong as his offensive game,
putting him in the same class as former Red Wing Sergei Fedorov in 1994.
HART TROPHY (League MVP): Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames;
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins; Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals.
My Pick: Ovechkin. Not only did he lead the NHL in points
and become the first player in 11 years to score over 60 goals in a season but
he also carried the Capitals to their first playoff berth in five years.
ADAMS TROPHY (Best Coach): Mike Babcock, Detroit Red Wings;
Bruce Boudreau, Washington Capitals; Guy Carbonneau, Montreal Canadiens
My Pick: Boudreau. Babcock and Carbonneau did a tremendous
job with their teams but both had far more to work with than Boudreau, who took
over a team in disarray early in the season and turned them into a playoff
club.
In a move that should surprise no one, the Detroit Red Wings re-signed team captain Nicklas Lidstrom on December 26th to a two-year contract extension.
Starting next season the new contract pays Lidstrom $7.45 million per year and will expire at the end of the 2009-10 season. It's a slight pay cut for Lidstrom, who'll earn $7.6 million this season, but one he was willing to take to remain with the Wings, the only NHL team he's ever played for.
Some fans might sneer at Lidstrom's modest pay cut, but considering he's one of the best defencemen in the NHL - and has been for over a dozen years now - it's quite noteworthy, especially since he could've received much more on the open market next summer.
How much more? Consider the following, courtesy of TSN.ca:
Lidstrom is currently second among NHL
defenceman in scoring with 32 points (three goals, 29 points) heading
into Detroit's game Wednesday night versus St. Louis. He's the
highest-scoring defenceman in Red Wings history with 900 points in 15
NHL seasons.
Lidstrom, 37, is a five-time winner of the Norris Trophy as the
NHL's top defenceman. He was was selected in the third round, 53rd
overall, by Detroit in the 1989 NHL entry draft.
In 1,212 NHL regular-season games, the eight-time league all-star
has 205 goals and 695 assists. He has added 39 goals and 97 assists in
192 career playoff games.
Now consider The Hockey News recently ranked Lidstrom as not only the best European player ever, but also the second-best defenseman in NHL history (behind the great Bobby Orr).
It's a safe bet Lidstrom would've become the highest paid in NHL history had he opted to test the UFA market. Even at 37, he's among the elite players in the game right now, and had the Red Wings advanced to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals would've been on the short list for the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP, an award he won in 2002.
By signing for $7.45 million per season, Lidstrom saved the Red Wings at least $4 million per season over the next two years. What he's done is akin to that of New Jersey Devils netminder Martin Brodeur, taking less than market value to stay put thus allowing management to use the savings to put toward building and maintaining a contender.
For all the talk of "greedy players" who put themselves above their team, it should be remembered there are players like Lidstrom and Brodeur who are still in their prime that put team above self.
In Lidstrom's case, his signing now means the Wings have over $35 million committed to 13 players next season. With the salary cap expected to rise to over $54 million for 2008-09, that'll leave the Wings nearly $20 million of available cap space.
That's more than enough to re-sign key players like Chris Chelios, Daniel Cleary, Chris Osgood and Valtteri Filppula to affordable contracts and still leaving plenty to go shopping in next summer's unrestricted free agent market.
Back on May 2 I posted up the list of nominees for the NHL individual awards and my predictions of who would win.
The awards I covered included the Calder, Selke, Hart, Adams, Norris, Lady Byng, Pearson and the Vezina.
And except for the Adams, Lady Byng and Pearson, I was spot-on with my other predictions.
Evgeni Malkin won the Calder, Rod Brind'amour the Selke, Sidney Crosby the Hart (and the Pearson), Nicklas Lidstrom the Norris and Martin Brodeur the Vezina.
The Adams went to Vancouver's Alain Vigneault (I'd picked Buffalo's Lindy Ruff), the Pearson to Crosby (I'd picked Vincent Lecavalier) and the Lady Byng went to Pavel Datsyuk (I'd picked Colorado's Joe Sakic).
OK, so I went five for eight. Still not bad, eh?
Other awards that I didn't post predictions on were the Masterton Trophy, which went to Boston's Phil Kessel for returning back to action after surgery for testicular cancer, and the King Clancy went to Montreal's Saku Koivu for his charity work.
The biggest surprise for me was Crosby winning the Pearson, as there was a perception that he might not yet have the full respect of his peers at such a young age to garner enough votes to win. The fact that he has should now cast no doubt as to his greatness.
It's one thing for fans to be critical of his getting awarded the Hart as that's voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association, but when the players vote him the Pearson, signifying their choice as the league's MVP, that ends the debate. They play the game and know true greatness when they see it.
The NHL recently released the list of finalists for their individual awards for this season. What follows is the listing and my prediction as to which players will win.
CALDER MEMORIAL TROPHY (outstanding rookie): Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins; Jordan Staal, Pittsburgh Penguins; Paul Stastny, Colorado Avalanche.
Staal is the best all-around player of the three, and Stastny, son of Hall of Famer Peter Stastny, proved the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with a strong rookie campaign, but Malkin will likely get the nod.
FRANK J. SELKE TROPHY (outstanding defensive forward): Rod Brind'Amour, Carolina Hurricanes; Samuel Pahlsson, Anaheim Ducks; Jay Pandolfo, New Jersey Devils.
Pandolfo and Pahlsson have both be very good defensive forwards and as valuable to their team's success as their more talented, better-known star teammates, but Brind'amour not only has always played a strong two-way game, he's also the only one of the three with a plus-minus rating on the happy side of plus, and in the end that tips it in his favour.
HART MEMORIAL TROPHY (most valuable player to his team): Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils; Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins; Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks.
Brodeur and Luongo are THE stars of their respective teams and invaluable to their club's respective successes, but let’s face it, they played for teams that going into this season had the talent to make the playoffs. No one other than die-hard Penguins fans expected Pittsburgh to clinch a berth, let alone finish the season with over 100 points. The player directly responsible for that is 19-year-old Sidney Crosby, who also won the Art Ross as the league’s leading point-getter.
JACK ADAMS AWARD (outstanding coach): Lindy Ruff, Buffalo Sabres; Michel Therrien, Pittsburgh Penguins; Alain Vigneault, Vancouver Canucks.
Therrien and Vigneault both did very good jobs with their respective clubs, but their teams still suffered from deficiencies (defensive for the Penguins, offensive for the Canucks). Ruff turned the Sabres into the best team in the NHL, with no real weaknesses. He gets the nod.
JAMES NORRIS MEMORIAL TROPHY (outstanding defenseman): Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings; Scott Niedermayer, Anaheim Ducks; Chris Pronger, Anaheim Ducks.
Niedermayer led all defensemen in assists and points and Pronger logs more ice time, but Lidstrom finished the season with a plus-minus of +40, better than Niedermayer and Pronger, had fewer penalty minutes and finished the season with 62 points. I think that makes him the better all-around blueliner.
LADY BYNG MEMORIAL TROPHY (sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct): Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings; Joe Sakic, Colorado Avalanche; Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning.
Datsyuk and St. Louis both play well without putting their teams in penalty trouble, but no one has the respect of NHL players or plays with more class than Burnaby Joe. Sakic will likely win this one.
LESTER B. PEARSON AWARD (most outstanding player as voted by fellow members of the NHLPA): Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins; Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay Lightning; Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks.
I think Crosby should win this, but I get the sense that because of his age that his peers may not believe he’s fully matured enough to deserve this award. It’s a tough call between Luongo and Lecavalier, but I think Lecavalier will win this.
VEZINA TROPHY (outstanding goaltender): Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils; Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary Flames; Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers; Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks.
No offense to Lundqvist and Kiprusoff, but this one comes down to Brodeur and Luongo, and if one compares their stats for this season, it’s no contest. Brodeur led Luongo in wins, shutouts, goals-against average, save percentage, saves made and shots-against. Luongo will one day win this award, but not today.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
