NHL 24 Mid-Season Simulation Awards

Kirill Kaprizov and Cale Makar big winners

With each of The Hockey News Team Sites unveiling the Mid-Season Awards for their respective teams, we at the Gaming Site decided to run a simulation of the 2023-24 season to see how EA SPORTS NHL 24 lines up with real life.

For this exercise we went in to Franchise Mode and simulated up until All-Star Weekend. We then evaluated standings and point leaders to complete our own awards. 

We used the most recent roster update, All-Star difficulty, and standard simulation settings. Here are the results.

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Art Ross: Nikita Kucherov, 66 points in 50 games

Sometimes simulations can be accurately mirror the real world. Kucherov sits alone at the top of the scoring race, 19 points shy of his real life totals. 

Rocket Richard: Nathan MacKinnon, 33 goals in 49 games

Auston Matthews' ridiculous goal pace did not translate to the game, as Colorado's captain narrowly holds the lead at the halfway point.

Hart: Kirill Kaprizov

The Minnesota Wild star takes home the mid-season Hart. One stat that jumped off the page was Kaprizov's league leading ten game winning goals in 49 games. He sits one goal back of MacKinnon in the Rocket race and his 63 points in 49 games were fourth in the league.

The Minnesota Wild played the simulation with $14.7 million in dead cap money and hold a playoff spot at the break on the strength of Kaprizov's play.

Norris: Cale Makar

The 2022 Norris winner leads defensemen in goals and scoring with 12 goals and 52 points in 47 games, he is a plus-15. 

Since we did not have the ability to watch Makar's defensive play in the simulation we are overly relying on his plus minus, but with Makar leading the first-place Avalanche in ice time, we think we made the right pick.

Vezina: Thatcher Demko

Much like real life Demko had a great first half. Most wins in the NHL with 25 in 41 games. Sporting a .920 SV% and a 2.50 GAA. 

Yes, 2.50 GAA is pretty high for a Vezina winner. However, Demko actually had the second best GAA among qualified goaltenders. The simulation was not particularly friendly to the netminders. 

Selke: Charlie Coyle

A bit like what's happening in real life, Coyle starts to take on more responsibilities with Patrice Bergeron retired. Boston sits third in the East. He's taken the most faceoffs on the team and is 57.2% on the draw. Averaging 20:18 per game, 45 points in 46 games, and a league second-best plus-30.

Calder: Marco Rossi

Our first major surprise on the list, it's not Connor Bedard. Rossi leads rookies in scoring with 37 points in 48 games and is only one goal back of Bedard. 

Additionally, Bedard finished as a minus-16 while Rossi was a plus-12 playing an important role on a playoff team.

Masterton: Sean Monahan

It's hard to develop storylines with a simulation, but if we relate it to what has happened in the past for these players, Monahan fittingly wins this award after a few recent injury plagued seasons. 

He has 43 points in 45 games with Montreal while averaging over 21 minutes a game. 

Lady Byng: Sam Reinhart

Reinhart in the simulation wasn't on a scoring tear like he is in real life. Instead, he's racking up the assists (43) and only has two penalty minutes on the season. 

Jack Adams: Derek Lalonde

Detroit holding the top spot in the East at the all-star break wasn't what we expected. The Red Wings hold a record of 30-17-3 and the second most goals with 174.

Lalonde has his virtual players playing good hockey and earns the Jack Adams.