Posted by Katie Peverada
Last week I wrote about my picks for the Hart Memorial Trophy, James Norris Memorial Trophy and Vezina Trophy. And other than Crosby being a lock for the Hart, the awards are highly contested. The Jack Adams Award could go to several different coaches, while the Calder Trophy could go to two rookies on the same team - or that guy out in Colorado. Here are my picks for the Calder Trophy, Jack Adams Award, Selke Trophy and the Lady Byng Award:
Calder Trophy (rookie of the year): As tempting as it is to give Tomas Hertl the nod for his four-goal dangle-fest, it's hard to ignore the impact that Nathan MacKinnon had on the rise of the Colorado Avalanche. MacKinnon led all rookies with 63 points and 39 assists and tied for first in scoring with 24 goals. MacKinnon did all this in an overachieving rookie class - see Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson in Tampa - and broke a Wayne Gretzky record by getting on the score sheet 13 games in a row. That 17 of his goals came on the power play shows the faith that Patrick Roy has in the rookie. MacKinnon, who averages 17:20 of ice time per game, wins for his overall contributions to his team and his rookie point-leading.
Jack Adams Award (coach of the year): Patrick Roy or Mike Babcock? Can't go wrong with either one. Babcock lost 417 man games to injury, including captain Henrik Zetterberg (37) and Pavel Datsyuk (37), but still managed to get the Red Wings to the playoffs for the 23rd straight season. Meanwhile, Roy took an Avalanche team that finished 29th overall last year and has turned them into a third place Cup contender. But the award has to go to Babcock because of what he did with, essentially, an AHL team. Roy had a potential Vezina and Calder winner on the ice for him. Babcock had Gustav Nyquist - who three months ago nobody outside of Maine knew anything about - and eight other Grand Rapids call-ups leading the way. It's only fitting that Babcock gets his first Jack Adams Award for the season in which he passed the Jack Adams for most wins by a Detroit coach with 414.
Selke Trophy (best defensive forward): In this case, thinking about whom the player is playing against is actually relevant. Patric Bergeron routinely takes on the opposing teams' best players for Boston, and starts 45.7 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone. Bergeron netted 62 points (30G, 32A) while winning 58.6 percent of his face-offs out of a total of 1,732 taken (for what it's worth, that's 35.4 percent of the Bruins' face-offs). Bergeron does it all, and he does it all over the ice.
Lady Byng Award (sportsmanship): Martin St. Louis had a minimal 10 penalty minutes this season while putting up 69 points (30G, 39A) and being on the ice for 25.7 shifts per game. That's nice and all, but Ryan O'Reilly of Colorado put up 64 points (28G, 36A), good enough for third on the team, averaged 19:49 per game, and had one minor penalty all year, because he played with a broken stick. Supports of Tyler Seguin might point to O'Reilly's measly 22 hits as a sign that he isn't penalized because he stays away from contact, but his 83 takeaways prove otherwise. His 64 points was a career high, by the way, and will undoubtedly help Colorado add to its award haul.
Special Stat Alert: 82 games make up the NHL season, but David Legwand - due to a midseason trade from Nashville to Detroit - played in 83 regular season games.