A day after the NHL announced that Montreal Canadiens blueliner Lane Hutson had won the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie, it announced that Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar was the James Norris Trophy recipient.
If Hutson dominantly won the Calder with 165 first-place votes, Makar was even more dominant with 176 first-place votes. He also received 13 second-place ballots and two third-place votes. All in all, he received 1861 points, 595 points ahead of second-place Columbus Blue Jackets rearguard Zach Werenski and a whopping 943 points ahead of third place Vancouver Canucks’ rearguard Quinn Hughes.
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Where did Hutson place? The rookie received 22 fifth-place votes, five fourth-place votes, and a single third-place vote, which gave him a total of 42 points for ninth place, nine points ahead of the Ottawa Senators’ blueliner Jake Sanderson and 13 points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers’ Evan Bouchard.
While Hutson was nowhere near winning the top defenseman award, just the fact that he received votes in his rookie season is quite impressive, and we’ve yet to see what his ceiling will be. As he ages and gains more weight and muscle, the youngster’s game is sure to improve, and anyone willing to say right here and now that there’s no Norris Trophy in his future would be making a daring statement.
The way this 21-year-old kid has taken the NHL by storm is genuinely amazing. He was given an opportunity, he grabbed it with both hands, and ran with it. What’s even more impressive, though, is how much he loves the game, so much so that playing hockey is not a job for him, it’s just something that he loves doing. Will that enthusiasm eventually wear off? Maybe, but it’s hard to see it now.
As much as he doesn’t like being under the spotlights off the ice, on the ice, he wants the puck at all times, not because he wants to steal the show, but because he wants to help his team win in any way that he can. Something tells me the Calder is just the first of a long list of individual awards Hutson will pick up throughout his career…
Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
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