Individual Awards: Worst performance to be nominated

[alko]

What are the worst records for a players nominated to Individual awards?

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[The Panther]

I know playing in the All-Star game is no big whoop in the grand scheme of things, but even so, who remember that Maple Leafs' defenceman Bob Manno (1 season with the Leafs) played in the NHL All-Star game in 1981-82? Now, in fairness, he had 50 points and was +5 on a bad team, but he was only sixth on the Leafs in team scoring (at season's end) and among D-men was behind Salming. The very next season, he left the NHL to play in Italy (he was Italian-Canadian, or maybe now only Italian), then came back from 1983-1985, and then was out of the NHL for good by age 28.

Regarding major award winners, one that gets mentioned a lot is goaltender Al Rollins, of the Black Hawks, winning the Hart for 1953-54. Rollins's record that season was 12 wins, 47 losses, and 12 ties. He surrendered far more goals than any other goaltender in the NHL (yet was only 5th in minutes played). Of goalies who played three games or more, he was dead-last in goals-against average. His team missed the playoffs, and finished last overall. And he won the Hart.

Sergei Makarov had a great first season in the NHL in 1989-90, but his winning the Calder was quite the joke. Makarov was 31 when the season started, and of course had had a decorated career as probably the best forward on the world's best international team (if not team, period) from 1978 on. The NHL decided he and other elite ex-Soviet veterans were rookies... but 10 years earlier had decided that Gretzky, Messier, Gartner et al. who were 18 or 19 and had played 1 season in the WHA were not rookies and thus were ineligible to win the Calder.

 

[The Macho King]

I know playing in the All-Star game is big whoop in the grand scheme of things, but even so, who remember that Maple Leafs' defenceman Bob Manno (1 season with the Leafs) played in the NHL All-Star game in 1981-82? Now, in fairness, he had 50 points and was +5 on a bad team, but he was only sixth on the Leafs in team scoring (at season's end) and among D-men was behind Salming. The very next season, he left the NHL to play in Italy (he was Italian-Canadian, or maybe now only Italian), then came back from 1983-1985, and then was out of the NHL for good by age 28.

Regarding major award winners, one that gets mentioned a lot is goaltender Al Rollins, of the Black Hawks, winning the Hart for 1953-54. Rollins's record that season was 12 wins, 47 losses, and 12 ties. He surrendered far more goals than any other goaltender in the NHL (yet was only 5th in minutes played). Of goalies who played three games or more, he was dead-last in goals-against average. His team missed the playoffs, and finished last overall. And he won the Hart.

Sergei Makarov had a great first season in the NHL in 1989-90, but his winning the Calder was quite the joke. Makarov was 31 when the season started, and of course had had a decorated career as probably the best forward on the world's best international team (if not team, period) from 1978 on. The NHL decided he and other elite ex-Soviet veterans were rookies... but 10 years earlier had decided that Gretzky, Messier, Gartner et al. who were 18 or 19 and had played 1 season in the WHA were not rookies and thus were ineligible to win the Calder.

Regarding the underlined, my biggest issue with that isn't even that he won the Hart - it's that he won the Hart over Howe who beat the field by 14 points, or Kelly who had 49 points in 62 games.

 

[The Panther]

The OP specified "nominations" and not only winners... I seem to be banging on about Eric Lindros lately, and I'm not even his fan particularly, but I wonder if voters for 1992-93 would still maintain that both Joe Juneau (then age 25) and Felix Potvin were better rookies. I know Lindros played only 61 games, which probably cost him 2nd place to Selanne, but still... Ah well, it was a great season for rookies.

Jose Theodore in 2001-02. Did he have an awesome season? Yes. Did he deserve to be a 2nd-team All Star and win the Vezina? Sure, I guess. But did voters have to also award him the Hart? A little bit overkill, I think. There seemed to be this massive media/fan love-affair with Theodore that season. Know how many goalies have won the Hart and Vezina in the same season? 4 in history, and two of them (Plante and Hasek) are legends of the game (the other is Carey Price, but at least he had a great won-lost record and was also voted the Pearson by his peers). Anyway, I think just the Vezina would have been enough for Theodore.

 

[The Macho King]

The OP specified "nominations" and not only winners... I seem to be banging on about Eric Lindros lately, and I'm not even his fan particularly, but I wonder if voters for 1992-93 would still maintain that both Joe Juneau (then age 25) and Felix Potvin were better rookies. I know Lindros played only 61 games, which probably cost him 2nd place to Selanne, but still... Ah well, it was a great season for rookies.

Jose Theodore in 2001-02. Did he have an awesome season? Yes. Did he deserve to be a 2nd-team All Star and win the Vezina? Sure, I guess. But did voters have to also award him the Hart? A little bit overkill, I think. There seemed to be this massive media/fan love-affair with Theodore that season. Know how many goalies have won the Hart and Vezina in the same season? 4 in history, and two of them (Plante and Hasek) are legends of the game (the other is Carey Price, but at least he had a great won-lost record and was also voted the Pearson by his peers). Anyway, I think just the Vezina would have been enough for Theodore.

Frankly, I get why that didn't go to a forward. It was only the second sub-100 points Art Ross season since expansion (and the first time it happened the Hart went to a Defenseman) - so it wasn't going to a forward most likely. Lidstrom won the Norris with only 50 points and a partner who also finished highly in Norris voting in Chelios (in fact, Chelios only had one fewer 1st place vote than Lidstrom).

So it was going to a goalie, and Theodore *did* have the best season. I know Calgary fans argue that Iginla was robbed and all of that, but I honestly think they got it right.

 

[sr edler]

Theodore won the Hart Trophy because he had no serious competition for it. Only guy threatening him was Iginla who late-season stat padded on a team that was already long gone from the playoffs at that point.

I have nothing in particular against Theodore and he deserved that award in the sense that no one else should have gotten it instead. NHL was a bad product at the time. Todd Bertuzzi scored at the highest clip of any player that year.

 

[JackSlater]

Off the top of my head, Fuhr finishing second in Hart voting in 1988 is very odd, both in terms of level of play and value to the team.

 

[Varan]

Taylor Hall won the 2018 MVP because..... he got his team to an 8th seed?

 

[rnhaas]

This doesn't qualify as a bad individual performance but Bathgate won the Hart in 1959 despite missing the playoffs. He was third in scoring and his team seems to have just narrowly missed the playoffs (perhaps after the voters had made up their minds) but it still seems a little weird.

 

[The Panther]

Taylor Hall won the 2018 MVP because..... he got his team to an 8th seed?

That's one of those ones where votes were split between two guys (one in the East, one West) fairly equally. If MacKinnon hadn't missed 8 games to injury, he definitely wins that Hart. I know an 8th-seed team doesn't seem that impressive, but considering that Jersey was 27 points improved from the season prior, it was an excellent showing.

 

[The Panther]

Off the top of my head, Fuhr finishing second in Hart voting in 1988 is very odd, both in terms of level of play and value to the team.

I agree. I've always said that was a weird one. I was following that team, every game, that season and Fuhr didn't even have one of his better seasons, let alone being more valuable to his team than Gretzky! He was only hugely valuable in the sense that Edmonton no longer had a back-up goalie worth anything, so Fuhr had to play all the games.

 

[Varan]

That's one of those ones where votes were split between two guys (one in the East, one West) fairly equally. If MacKinnon hadn't missed 8 games to injury, he definitely wins that Hart. I know an 8th-seed team doesn't seem that impressive, but considering that Jersey was 27 points improved from the season prior, it was an excellent showing.

I understand that they improved points wise in the standings as a team, but I had 4 candidates ahead of him who were all better production wise and higher in the standings. If the Oilers made the playoffs, CM would’ve won.

 

[Michael Farkas]

The Hall win was a literal most valuable win...not best player win. Hall was the only player on the Devils and willed them into the playoffs alone...it was well earned.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Taylor Hall won the 2018 MVP because..... he got his team to an 8th seed?

40 goals and 93 points...next highest goal scorer was 24 and point getter 53 points.

They are sniffing 1st overall draft pick again if not for Taylor.

 

[Nick Hansen]

The performances weren't poor per say but consisted of surprisingly low number of games: Orr winning the Norris in 67/68 with only 46 games played out of 74 and Brad Park was nominated for the Norris twice whilst playing 52 out 78 games and 56 out of 80 games on those two occasions.

Safe to say that would never happen today.

 

[The Macho King]

The performances weren't poor per say but consisted of surprisingly low number of games: Orr winning the Norris in 67/68 with only 46 games played out of 74 and Brad Park was nominated for the Norris twice whilst playing 52 out 78 games and 56 out of 80 games on those two occasions.

Safe to say that would never happen today.

The issue with the league at that point was simply the league was shallow as hell with the WHA and few Euros/Americans.

 

[Nick Hansen]

The issue with the league at that point was simply the league was shallow as hell with the WHA and few Euros/Americans.

Yes. It reflected the situation regarding which players were the best better than had forcing up lesser players just because they played more games.

 

[MS]

If we’re going by the worst seasons ever nominated - which was the original question - its hard to top 31 y/o backup goalie Gilles Villemure being nominated for the 1971 Calder.

A past-his-prime Rick Meagher winning the 1990 Selke over prime Tikkanen and Carbonneau is probably the worst win ever.

 

[MadLuke]

Jim Carey winning over Hasek/Brodeur/Puppa seem a strange choice and a case of overvaluing strange metric the nhl keep track like shutout:
NHL Vezina Trophy Winners | Hockey-Reference.com

1998-99	NHL	Dominik Hasek	34	BUF	G	30	18	14	1.87	.937	0.0	0.0	16.8	16.8
1997-98	NHL	Dominik Hasek	33	BUF	G	33	23	13	2.09	.932	0.0	0.0	18.6	18.6
1996-97	NHL	Dominik Hasek	32	BUF	G	37	20	10	2.27	.930	0.0	0.0	17.2	17.2
1995-96	NHL	Jim Carey	21	WSH	G	35	24	9	2.26	.906	0.0	0.0	9.9	9.9
1994-95	NHL	Dominik Hasek	30	BUF	G	19	14	7	2.11	.930	0.0	0.0	10.3	10.3
1993-94	NHL	Dominik Hasek	29	BUF	G	30	20	6	1.95	.930	0.0	0.0	13.1	13.1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

That year:
Goals Saved Above Average

1.	Dominik Hasek* • BUF	43
2.	Daren Puppa • TBL	32
3.	Guy Hebert • MDA	28
4.	Martin Brodeur* • NJD	25
5.	Felix Potvin • TOR	25
6.	Ron Hextall • PHI	19
7.	Patrick Roy* • 2TM	18
8.	Mike Richter • NYR	17
9.	Sean Burke • HAR	17
10.	Jeff Hackett • CHI	16

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Goalie Point Shares

1.	Dominik Hasek* • BUF	14.8
2.	Felix Potvin • TOR	13.8
3.	Martin Brodeur* • NJD	12.8
4.	Grant Fuhr* • STL	12.5
5.	Sean Burke • HAR	12.5
6.	Guy Hebert • MDA	12.3
7.	Daren Puppa • TBL	11.6
8.	Patrick Roy* • 2TM	11.3
9.	Nikolai Khabibulin • WIN	10.4
10.	Jim Carey • WSH	9.9

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Feel like a bit of we have a chance to not give it to Hasek like it seem to have happened to Gretzky.

 

[c9777666]

Jim Carey winning over Hasek/Brodeur/Puppa seem a strange choice and a case of overvaluing strange metric the nhl keep track like shutout:
NHL Vezina Trophy Winners | Hockey-Reference.com

1998-99	NHL	Dominik Hasek	34	BUF	G	30	18	14	1.87	.937	0.0	0.0	16.8	16.8
1997-98	NHL	Dominik Hasek	33	BUF	G	33	23	13	2.09	.932	0.0	0.0	18.6	18.6
1996-97	NHL	Dominik Hasek	32	BUF	G	37	20	10	2.27	.930	0.0	0.0	17.2	17.2
1995-96	NHL	Jim Carey	21	WSH	G	35	24	9	2.26	.906	0.0	0.0	9.9	9.9
1994-95	NHL	Dominik Hasek	30	BUF	G	19	14	7	2.11	.930	0.0	0.0	10.3	10.3
1993-94	NHL	Dominik Hasek	29	BUF	G	30	20	6	1.95	.930	0.0	0.0	13.1	13.1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

That year:
Goals Saved Above Average

1.	Dominik Hasek* • BUF	43
2.	Daren Puppa • TBL	32
3.	Guy Hebert • MDA	28
4.	Martin Brodeur* • NJD	25
5.	Felix Potvin • TOR	25
6.	Ron Hextall • PHI	19
7.	Patrick Roy* • 2TM	18
8.	Mike Richter • NYR	17
9.	Sean Burke • HAR	17
10.	Jeff Hackett • CHI	16

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Goalie Point Shares

1.	Dominik Hasek* • BUF	14.8
2.	Felix Potvin • TOR	13.8
3.	Martin Brodeur* • NJD	12.8
4.	Grant Fuhr* • STL	12.5
5.	Sean Burke • HAR	12.5
6.	Guy Hebert • MDA	12.3
7.	Daren Puppa • TBL	11.6
8.	Patrick Roy* • 2TM	11.3
9.	Nikolai Khabibulin • WIN	10.4
10.	Jim Carey • WSH	9.9

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Feel like a bit of we have a chance to not give it to Hasek like it seem to have happened to Gretzky.

They don’t give Vezinas to goalies who miss the playoffs (since 1982, only Bobrovsky in a shortened 2013 has done so).

Brodeur and Hasek both missed the playoffs, so if I had to justify the 1996 Vezina, Puppa or Fuhr had a better argument

 

[Gambitman]

I know Rod Langway was a great player I. but I have a hard time believing a defensive defenceman could be 2nd in Hart Trophy voting.

 

[MadLuke]

They don’t give Vezinas to goalies who miss the playoffs (since 1982, only Bobrovsky in a shortened 2013 has done so).

Would not that also go in the category of valuing rather strange metric or overvaluing goaltender importance, if being the best goaltender of a season was locking the team to be in the playoff, they should get more Hart trophies than they do.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Petr Buzek was an all-star in 2000. He was a defenseman who scored 19 points, playing about 18.5 minutes per game. He was on the ice for about 3.6 goals against per 60 minutes at ES (a terrible number for 2000, though that was roughly in line with his team's average). Buzek played 157 games in his career, never in the playoffs, and was out of the NHL at 25 after playing 14.5 minutes per game on the pre-Kiprusoff, non-playoff 2003 Calgary Flames.

I'm pretty sure the NHL required each team (in this case, the expansion Atlanta Thrashers) to have one nominee for the all-star game, but even then, Buzek was an odd choice. Why not pick respected veteran Ray Ferraro (who was 35 years old that season, was an all-star once back in 1992, and put up decent numbers) or Andrew Brunette (26 years old, never an all-star, and who was 22nd in scoring and "only" a -4 as of December 27th, which was remarkable given his dismal team)?

 

[The Macho King]

Petr Buzek was an all-star in 2000. He was a defenseman who scored 19 points, playing about 18.5 minutes per game. He was on the ice for about 3.6 goals against per 60 minutes at ES (a terrible number for 2000, though that was roughly in line with his team's average). Buzek played 157 games in his career, never in the playoffs, and was out of the NHL at 25 after playing 14.5 minutes per game on the pre-Kiprusoff, non-playoff 2003 Calgary Flames.

I'm pretty sure the NHL required each team (in this case, the expansion Atlanta Thrashers) to have one nominee for the all-star game, but even then, Buzek was an odd choice. Why not pick respected veteran Ray Ferraro (who was 35 years old that season, was an all-star once back in 1992, and put up decent numbers) or Andrew Brunette (26 years old, never an all-star, and who was 22nd in scoring and "only" a -4 as of December 27th, which was remarkable given his dismal team)?

I just can't get bent out of shape over AS game selections. Maybe Ferraro didn't want to play in the game? Brunette had a nagging injury or a sick kid? Who knows.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Petr Buzek was an all-star in 2000. He was a defenseman who scored 19 points, playing about 18.5 minutes per game. He was on the ice for about 3.6 goals against per 60 minutes at ES (a terrible number for 2000, though that was roughly in line with his team's average). Buzek played 157 games in his career, never in the playoffs, and was out of the NHL at 25 after playing 14.5 minutes per game on the pre-Kiprusoff, non-playoff 2003 Calgary Flames.

I'm pretty sure the NHL required each team (in this case, the expansion Atlanta Thrashers) to have one nominee for the all-star game, but even then, Buzek was an odd choice. Why not pick respected veteran Ray Ferraro (who was 35 years old that season, was an all-star once back in 1992, and put up decent numbers) or Andrew Brunette (26 years old, never an all-star, and who was 22nd in scoring and "only" a -4 as of December 27th, which was remarkable given his dismal team)?

Not that Buzek was a good choice or anything, but he was on something like a 30 point pace by mid season, and then fell off after that. And he was constantly missing time. Sometimes, like his all star season or his two seasons in Calgary, is was just the thousand cuts variety that killed any momentum his career could have had. Then there were the bad ones - a car accident in his D+1 season, and a neck injury in his follow up season for the Thrashers, that wiped out years his career. I wouldn’t go wild speculating on what Buzek should have been, but “something” isn’t too much to guess I don’t think.