2023-24 Calder Memorial Trophy finalists: Connor Bedard, Brock Faber, Luke Hughes

[dgibb10]

And 23-year-old, 6'3" Daniil Misyul is in Utica while the Devils toss players like Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec into the NHL before they are ready, why? Doesn't seem to make much sense.

Might be one of the dumbest things I've ever read btw

Never said that. Welcome to Ignoreland.

 

[ORRFForever]

Posters are going to root for players from their own team / country - and see the players through those glasses.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Might be one of the dumbest things I've ever read btw

Proved my point. Never said anything about making the playoffs. That point was that the Devils were soft defensively and too weak physically.

The GM pretty much admitted such in his exit interview.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Imagine citing a -25 when he was only -4 at 5v5 despite being anchored by Brendan Smith for a large part of the year.

Hughes was actually +9 at 5v5 without Smith:

Hughes with Smith
3GF 16GA

Hughes without Smith
48GF 39GA

So yeah, your posts are idiotic.

@Jersey Fan 12 I noticed you dodged this. Do you have no response or am I also on your ignore list?

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

@Jersey Fan 12 I noticed you dodged this. Do you have no response or am I also on your ignore list?

Wouldn't ignore you because you, like me, pretty much watch almost every Devils game.

We just disagree on the Hughes brothers and the direction in which the team is headed.

Bashing Brendan Smith is pretty much a ritual for a segment of the Devils' fan base.

But Brendan wasn't drafted to be a 1 or 2 defenseman. I'd imagine Smith's numbers with Luke were a lot worse than with the other defensemen as well.

But unlike Luke he was capable of taking shifts on the PK; neither Lindy Ruff nor Travis Green would let the Hughes brothers anywhere near the PK.

 

[dgibb10]

Proved my point. Never said anything about making the playoffs. That point was that the Devils were soft defensively and too weak physically.

The GM pretty much admitted such in his exit interview.

Yep, the solution was totally to replace our 2 best dman with a pair of mediocre AHLers

A dcore of
Siegenthaler-Marino
Bahl-Desimone
Misyul-Smith
Hatakka
would have solved everything.

And when Siegs and Marino are hurt I guess you would have plugged in Vilen (who's better than Misyul) and Wotherspoon eh?

 

[cassac]

Fair enough, but relying on points alone is also faulty. It's about the "most proficient" player. Again, I think most people expect Bedard to win, but there will certainly be voters that cover the Wild who read the criteria, note the missed time and other defects in Bedard's game, and vote Faber.

Fixed it for you

 

[My3Sons]

Much of which came during the two week swoon when the entire team struggled.

As opposed to power play inflated scoring numbers and a woeful -25 plus/minus?

You can argue that he doesn't fit with the top two - and there are likely other deserving rookies around the league - but Ersson vs Hughes is a no-brainer.

Meh. Hughes was great at the beginning of the season and then revived his game towards the end. As previously posted he was victimized by empty net goals for his plus/minus and if he had to drag around Smith and play on his off hand a bunch as a rookie that’s not really his decision. He wasn’t as good as the top two guys but he was as good as any other rookie this season. He’s also capable of highlight reel moves and goals and that dynamism showed pretty easily which probably swayed a lot of voters. He tied for second in rookie scoring as a defender. That’s probably as far as it went for plenty of thr voters.

 

[Leksand]

Fixed it for you

I don’t know what you fixed exactly (and I don’t have a strong opinion on the Calder this year, except it’s one giant meh to me), but if voters cover the Wild and not only big market / O6 teams - that’s a good thing.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Meh. Hughes was great at the beginning of the season and then revived his game towards the end. As previously posted he was victimized by empty net goals for his plus/minus and if he had to drag around Smith and play on his off hand a bunch as a rookie that’s not really his decision. He wasn’t as good as the top two guys but he was as good as any other rookie this season. He’s also capable of highlight reel moves and goals and that dynamism showed pretty easily which probably swayed a lot of voters. He tied for second in rookie scoring as a defender. That’s probably as far as it went for plenty of thr voters.

Empty net goals don't count? And on several of those it was his turnovers that led to the goals.

 

[My3Sons]

Empty net goals don't count? And on several of those it was his turnovers that led to the goals.

Sure. But the more I think about it the voters see two defenders tied for second in rookie points and that’s about as far as their analysis goes. For better or worse it seems to be more of a scoring award than an overall play award.

 

[BurntToast]

What’s crazy, Luke Hughes was 2nd in rooking scoring and for a good part of the season, he was the Devils best defenseman. Those two things are facts.

Luke Hughes being in the top 3 doesn’t take anything away from Bedard or Faber.

 

[Sstroh84]

This year's Calder was drastically impacted by injuries. Bedard will win this by quite a lot as he was by far the best player that was able to put together a close to full season. Other contenders had substantial injuries which kept them from putting enough out there for consideration including Carlsson and Fantilli. Faber had a good year for sure, but it takes the lack of a high impact forward for a defenseman to win. There were some other inconsistent players like Voronkov and Rossi that flashed a while, but couldnt put it all together.

Faber and Hughes have great careers ahead, but this is all Bedard this year.

 

[BurntToast]

Can the NHL just grow and adapt? No.. Pretty Stuffy Bunch..

How hard would it be to create a Defense ROY and Offense ROY.

Add, While we are at it split the Norris. WTF does the NHL have a Selke Award and not an award for most offensive defenseman. Let’s just keep giving the Norris to offensive defenseman.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Can the NHL just grow and adapt? No.. Pretty Stuffy Bunch..

How hard would it be to create a Defense ROY and Offense ROY.

Add, While we are at it split the Norris. WTF does the NHL have a Selke Award and not an award for most offensive defenseman. Let’s just keep giving the Norris to offensive defenseman.

Until somebody figures out a defensive metric as easy to look at as points, it's just how it's going to be.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

Wouldn't ignore you because you, like me, pretty much watch almost every Devils game.

We just disagree on the Hughes brothers and the direction in which the team is headed.

Bashing Brendan Smith is pretty much a ritual for a segment of the Devils' fan base.

But Brendan wasn't drafted to be a 1 or 2 defenseman. I'd imagine Smith's numbers with Luke were a lot worse than with the other defensemen as well.

But unlike Luke he was capable of taking shifts on the PK; neither Lindy Ruff nor Travis Green would let the Hughes brothers anywhere near the PK.

Do you think when Detroit drafted Smith 27th overall they were hoping he'd be a fringe NHL player?

 

[Dead Coyote]

2010 : RD Tyler Meyers won Calder, finished 3rd in rookie points (about 10 fewer points)
2009 : G Steven Mason won over Stamkos 23 goals, almost 50 points
2004 : G Andrew Raycroft won
2003 : RD Barrett Jackman won (190 pim, +23)

Steve Mason dragged the Jackets kicking and screaming into the playoffs as a rookie, for the first time in franchise history, while dealing with Mono for a significant amount of time during the season and a winning record.

Stamkos was great, but he absolutely deserves that award.

I'm disappointed there's no Cooley on this list. Hope he wins 4th.

 

[Marlowe Syn]

Posters are going to root for players from their own team / country - and see the players through those glasses.

Agreed. I m going to kind of do the same thing with Faber. I will preface that I really don't give a shit about these vote-in awards. Because as a poster stated earlier in the thread, it's more a name recognition award.

That said, as objectively as I can be, Faber should win the award. He was almost immediately put into above his weight class top pairing role with Spurgeon's injury(ies). Sure having Jonas Brodin as your partner will certainly take some off a lot of that defensive pressure. Guess what, Brodin didn't play 82 games either. 62 to be exact. So without our two best blueliners in December Faber just kept shutting down and making opponents cry. So almost immediately he was thrust into a top pairing and less than 30 games into his NHL career he is the defacto #1D. Potted in a little offensive flavor to boot.

Bedard will win it. Fans will grumble, Chicago fans will probably talk shit and life will go on. As a player I would take the AHL Calder over the NHL's all day every day.

Regardless to how this popularity pageant plays out what Brock Faber did this season is very impressive and I think that will be reflective in the voting to a certain degree. It will not be a 1st place vote sweep for Bedard.

 

[613Leafer]

I know performance at the World's doesnt count towards the Calder, but I think it really shows what some people have been saying - for as talented as Bedard is, he doesn't remotely play a responsible 200ft game, and it can't all just be blamed on playing for a poor Chicago team.

On a good Team Canada, he's the 13th forward.

For the Calder, I've said it before, but I'd take Faber who played all situations, was 6th in ice time per game league wide, and put up nearly 50 points (which for a D, is a better points per game than Bedard's relative to forwards) over the one-dimensional forward. Bedard has more potential, will very likely round out his game, and very likely has the better career, but if I'm trying to win hockey games this year, I would take Faber over Bedard, which is ultimately how I would be deciding the Calder.

 

[Barrie22]

It's a fact. Remember when McDavid didn't win the Calder despite being the best hockey player since Mario Lemieux? If you can't play the full season, you're not the best rookie. Faber not only did that, he excelled. I think lots of hockey writers will vote Faber assuming Bedard will win, because they know he's the more deserving candidate this season. Nothing against Bedard, he'll likely make an All-Star team or two.

48 points in 45 games (4th among rookies in scoring), 14 goals back of top rookie, 15 assists back of top rookie, 29 points back of top scorer vs 1st among rookies in goals, assists and points.

Anyone that brings up McDavid doesn't understand the voting. Bedard missed games, but he didn't miss enough to fall out of contention for the rookie scoring race. Bedard missing games allowed the others to have a chance to win the rookie of the year.

Let's say McDavid stayed healthy his entire rookie season. He still barely out produces the winner of that years calder winner 86 vs 77.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

48 points in 45 games (4th among rookies in scoring), 14 goals back of top rookie, 15 assists back of top rookie, 29 points back of top scorer vs 1st among rookies in goals, assists and points.

Anyone that brings up McDavid doesn't understand the voting. Bedard missed games, but he didn't miss enough to fall out of contention for the rookie scoring race. Bedard missing games allowed the others to have a chance to win the rookie of the year.

Let's say McDavid stayed healthy his entire rookie season. He still barely out produces the winner of that years calder winner 86 vs 77.

Actually, I do understand the voting. And McDavid *shocker alert* would have won if he had played a full season. Lots of voters are going to vote for Faber because he was the best overall rookie, playing the tougher position, staying in the lineup despite playing a physically more demanding style and role, playing well and producing points. I do understand that hockey writers as class include a few dumbasses who are going to do what you just did: look at numbers. Others watch the games and make good decisions not based solely on hype and marketing and big-market needs and the Chicago factor. Again, it's no discredit to Faber if Bedard wins and he is clearly the front-runner for most. But others will vote based on the award criteria and that's why Faber has a chance.