Last night, the NHL announced the league award winners for the regular season. Let’s take a look at which players took home some hardware.
Connor McDavid wins the Hart Trophy
After putting up an insane 105 points in a shortened, 56 game season, it wasn’t really any question who was going to take home the league’s Most Valuable Player award. The average number of points for the regular-season point leader over the past ten years is 101. McDavid had 105 in 26 fewer games. That number shows you how dominant he really was this season.
McDavid’s fellow nominees for the award, Auston Matthews and Nathan MacKinnon, each had outstanding seasons, but the Oilers center ran away with the award. McDavid joined Wayne Gretzky as the only two players to win the award unanimously.
Connor McDavid wins the Ted Lindsay Award
The Hart Trophy wasn’t the only piece of hardware Connor McDavid took home last night. The Oilers captain was also the recipient of the Ted Lindsay Award. The Ted Lindsay Award is given to “the league’s most outstanding player in the regular season.” The Hart Trophy is voted by professional hockey writers, while members of the NHLPA vote for the Ted Lindsay Award. Like the award above, it wasn’t really any question of who would be the winner.
Adam Fox takes home the Norris Trophy
The Norris trophy is given annually to the league’s best defenseman. Coming into the year, players like Victor Hedman, Cale Makar, and Quinn Hughes were expected to be competing for the award. Instead, New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox had a huge sophomore season to take home the award.
Fox finished with 743 points in the award voting, beating out second-place Cale Makar’s 655 points. Fox became only the second player ever to win the award in his second season. The only other player to do is Bobby Orr.
Fox was a bright spot for the Rangers this season. The defenseman put up 5 goals and 42 assists from the blueline for a total of 47 points. New York will look to add some more above-average defensemen this offseason in an attempt to make the playoffs next season.
Marc-Andre Fleury wins the Vezina Trophy
Vegas Golden Knights’ goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was the 2021 winner of the Vezina Trophy. The trophy is given to the league’s best goalie.
Fleury had a tremendous regular season, posting a .928 SV% and 1.98 GAA. Following his goalie partner winning the award, Robin Lehner congratulated Fleury on Twitter while hinting at Alan Walsh’s infamous deleted tweet.
Despite Fleury’s strong regular season, he struggled in the playoffs. Leading 2-1 with just over a minute left in Game 3 of the Conference Finals, Fleury had a costly turnover which Josh Anderson buried to tie the game. Montreal would win the game in overtime. Instead of going up 2-1 in the series, they ended up being down 2-1.
Fleury did not start the next game. This was not the first time Fleury has been criticized for his performance in the playoffs.
Kirill Kaprizov wins the Calder Trophy
Minnesota Wild phenom Kirill Kaprizov took home the Calder Trophy last night. The Calder Trophy is handed out to the league’s best rookie. Kaprizov was a super hyped prospect coming into the league, but he was better this year than any expert could have predicted. The Russian-born sniper put up 51 points this season, almost a 1.0 points per game rate. Jason Robertson, who came second for the award, put up 45 points.
Kaprizov continued his strong play into the playoffs. The rookie sensation helped his Minnesota Wild push the Vegas Golden Knights all the way to 7 games. The Wild eventually lost that game and were eliminated in the first round.
Following the season, there were rumors that Kaprizov was interested in going home to his native country of Russia to play in the KHL. The Minnesota Wild will surely be hoping those are just rumors and nothing more.
