C Ryan Donato (2014, 56th, BOS)

[Our Lady Peace]

Not sure about next year not being as good. We are talking about a much better draft year with guys like Dahlin, Svechnikov and Zadina all being better than Hishier and Patrick. Then add in guys like Donato, Tolvanen, Mittlestadt, Chytil, Sprong, Necas, Cirelli, Glass, Vilardi, Petersson, Thomas, Borgstrom, Sikura to name a few guys who should do quite well.

I'm going to echo the post above. Plenty of very good future stars that will be dropping onto the Calder scene. High end it could be better or worse, but I don't agree that it "won't be close".

 

[AmericanDream]

Not sure about next year not being as good. We are talking about a much better draft year with guys like Dahlin, Svechnikov and Zadina all being better than Hishier and Patrick. Then add in guys like Donato, Tolvanen, Mittlestadt, Chytil, Sprong, Necas, Cirelli, Glass, Vilardi, Petersson, Thomas, Borgstrom, Sikura to name a few guys who should do quite well.

that is fair, but as I said, just many unknowns here. you knew for this year you had a number of kids who would be spending most of the time up in the NHL - Barzal, Keller, Connor, McAvoy, Boeser, Hischier, etc - were all locks as playing over 60 games this year...I just don't have that with next years group. There is talent there, not saying there isn't, but I am not sure people realize how good this years crop was, it will be very hard to duplicate with so many kids who stepped up and took full-time roles already.

There will be 2-3 kids from this draft that will be names for ROY, but as you can see it isn't about top players drafted from 2017, they weren't even in the conversation for the calder, it was older players...and I see the same happening again. I have 3 locks in the NHL next year from this draft - Dahlin, Tkachuk, and Bouchard - I think all 3 make it straight to the show - not any of them make my top 5 calder finalists..

My top 5 candidates for next year's Calder:

Ryan Donato
Dylan Sikura
Cody Glass
Casey Mittlestadt
Adam Gaudette

HM: Elias Pettersson, Lias Andersson, Kailer Yamamoto, Kieffer Bellows, Henrik Borgstrom, Rasumus Dahlin, Evan Bouchard, and Brady Tkachuk - not sold on Zadina or Svech making it to the NHL right away or being a top rookie out the gate....it is a solid group, but just doesn't look close to this year for now...

 

[Mick Riddleton]

It's been 7 games and you think he'll likely win the Calder next year. Right, because he'll be PPG player based on 7 games. And no other good rookies will be entering the league next year, of course. Man, some people.

The logical statement to make is this: he'll likely have a good year next season and may be in the discussion for the Calder as there will be other very good rookies playing in the NHL. But no, he is LIKELY to win it based on a 7 game sample. Sigh.

Seems you changed your stance from not even being in the discussion, this is this is the Donato thread if you need to discuss Calder candidates this is not it. Anything to say about Donato other then down playing everything he has done would help.