The NHL teased Montreal Canadiens fans on Tuesday on Instagram. The league posted a picture to its account titled “Lane Hutson’s Case For The Calder”. It did the same for Macklin Celebrini and Dustin Wolf, mind you, but since it wasn’t in the same post, some jumped to the conclusion.
The Calder Trophy winner will be revealed in a video, just like the Frank J Selke and Bill Masterton Trophies have been, amongst others. The NHL's award show has been downsized to video reveals, and the league has announced that winners will be revealed by June 12.
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A league official speaking on the 32 Thoughts Podcast said last week that the recipient’s reactions to the Masteron and the Calder Trophies were the best. The Masterton went to Sean Monahan after he had to deal with the death of his friend Johnny Gaudreau, after fighting his way through multiple injuries over the years. The Calder winner had a surprising reaction; I must say I’m curious to see what that will be.
While Wolf and Celebrini also have a great case to win the award, I struggle to see how Hutson’s historic rookie season could fail to earn him the top prize. He tied a rookie assist record that had been set in 1980-81, and it’s not because there haven’t been quality offensive defensemen since then.
The youngster also rewrote the Canadiens’ record book, notching the most points by a rookie defenseman in franchise history with 66. Chris Chelios had set the previous mark of 64 points in 1984-85. Hutson’s 66 points are the third most by any rookie in team history. Kjell Dahlin and Mats Naslund both had 71 points in their respective rookie seasons. Legend Guy Lafleur only had 64 in his first year, so Hutson beat him as well.
To compare with current teammates, Cole Caufield had only 43 points (20th in team history) in his rookie season, while Nick Suzuki had 41 (25th in team history). Of course, that doesn’t guarantee a Calder Trophy win, especially since members of the media vote for it. Still, the diminutive blueliner has undoubtedly made a strong case for himself.
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
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