Ducks crowd celebrates Lukáš Dostál's Second 50+ save performance of the season and his career (Via: Derek Lee) The NHL Awards were handed out in late June with not too many surprising winners like Quinn Hughes winning the James Norris Trophy for Best Defenceman or Connor Bedard winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's best rookie. Most of the awards had little competition towards the end of the season and made it challenging to find good value. We look to jump on the opportunity and showcase some great values listed for awards odds next season. All betting lines are from Bet365 and are subject to change. Hockey is a difficult sport to predict so please gamble responsibly. Evan Bouchard to win James Norris Trophy (+800) Since the All-Star break, Bouchard finished with second-most points of any defenceman, behind Nashville's Roman Josi, with seven goals and 32 assists for 39 points bringing his season total to 82 and placing him fourth-best this season. He continued his hot streak into the postseason as well as adding a scoring touch to his game with six goals and 26 assists for 32 points in 25 games for a 1.28 points per game average. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmVrEM3_Z8g[/embed] Colorado's Cale Makar was the only defenceman that played ten or more games and averaged more points on average (1.36) in the postseason. We may see another race for the Norris this season but with Bouchard emerging as a top contender and should be taken now before its too late. It's also a fairly safe choice to go with a player that is on a power play with Connor McDavid. Jake Oettinger to win Vezina Trophy (+1400) Oettinger helped the Stars reach new heights this postseason with a Conference Finals appereance due to his stellar play that saw him record a goals against average of 2.24 and a save percentage at .915 which both finished top three of qualified playoff goaltenders. The Stars have continually been one of the best defensive teams in the league for some time now with the eighth-best goals against average this past season (2.83) and the fifth-best average over the past three seasons (2.81). [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG4AEvgXttE[/embed] The Minnesota native is also entering a contract year with Dallas and will be a restricted free agent. At age 25, Oettinger has entered himself into the conversation of best netminders in the league. Since entering the league in the 2020-21 season, he is top six in wins (113) as well as second-best in goals against average (2.51) and top six in save percentage (.913) out of goaltenders that have started 180 or more games. He has shown that he is well-within reach of a Vezina-winning season. Last season, he finished with a record of 35-14-4 and was top ten in goals against average (2.82) and top 15 in save percentage (.905) of netminders that had started 50 or more games.
