Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
The NHL Awards ceremony has finally arrived. Let’s take a look at all the spectacularly skilled players who took home some hardware.
Ted Lindsay Memorial Award: Connor McDavid
There was really no contest for this one. Coming off a season in which he cracked the 100-point barrier in just 56 games, Connor McDavid was crowned the league’s most outstanding player, as voted on by his peers. The Oilers captain put forth one of the most stunning offensive seasons in recent hockey history, finishing second in the NHL in goal scoring and putting up more assists, 72, than his next highest-scoring teammate, Leon Draisaital had points.
Despite the pandemic-related chaos and shortened season, McDavid somehow managed to eclipse his already-lofty expectations. That’s Lindsay-worthy no matter how you slice it.
Hart Memorial Trophy: Connor McDavid
As it turns out, the Professional Hockey Writers Association thinks just as highly of McDavid as his fellow players do, making the 24-year-old the unanimous winner of the Hart.
What more is there to say?
Vezina Trophy: Marc-Andre Fleury
Marc-Andre Fleury should seriously consider trademarking the phrase “aging like a fine wine”. It’s hard to think of another athlete it would apply to more.
The 36-year-old continued his torrid late-career resurgence by capturing his first-ever Vezina Trophy on the heels of his first-ever nomination, beating out fellow worthy contenders in Andrei Vasilevskiy and Phillip Grubauer. And with 28 wins, a 1.98 goals-against average, and .928 save percentage, it’s not hard to see why. Fleury was spectacular in 2021, rebounding from an uncharacteristically mediocre 2019-20 that thrust his name into the trade rumor mill and giving Las Vegas the unquestioned best goaltending tandem in the league.
Few players hit their peak as they approach their 40’s. Fleury seems to be doing just that.
James Norris Memorial Trophy: Adam Fox
It took just two seasons for Adam Fox to establish himself among the NHL’s elite. The dynamic sophomore put together an absolutely blistering 2021 campaign, logging the 11th-most minutes per game in the entire league while racking up 47 points in 55 games from the back end.
Based on the Rangers’ trajectory, a Norris isn’t the only trophy Fox seems likely to take home in the near future.
Calder Trophy: Kirill Kaprizov
Kaprizov failing to take home the Calder would have been, with no exaggeration, an international tragedy. Thankfully, the world was spared from confronting that reality, as the Russian sniper secured 99 of the 100 first-place votes to earn Rookie of the Year honors.
Simply put, Kaprizov made the Wild watchable again. With 27 goals and 24 assists for 51 points in just 55 games, all while leading the entire forward corps in average ice time, the 24-year-old gave Minnesota the type of elite offensive weapon of which they’d lacked since the Marian Gaborik era.
And given what Kaprizov has shown in just a single season of NHL action, his ceiling is perhaps even higher.