On Thursday, the NHL announced that Anze Kopitar was the recipient of the Lady Byng Trophy and released the results of the votes for the award. It’s the third time the Los Angeles Kings center has won the award in his 19-year career. The veteran received 50 first-place votes and a total of 856 points, a 63-point lead over second-place player Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning, not a wide margin compared to some of the other awards. The Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel finished in third place with 782 points.
A bit lower down the list, in fifth place, comes Montreal Canadiens’ captain Nick Suzuki. The center had a total of 694 voting points with eight first-place votes, 35 second-place votes, 48 third-place votes, 29 fourth-place votes, and 42 fifth-place ones.
Canadiens: Will Kent Hughes Need A New Plan?
Canadiens: Logan Mailloux Named To The AHL Top Prospects Team
Canadiens: Alex Newhook Will Have A Special Saint-Jean-Baptiste
I remember reading in a biography years ago that some players would rather win a case of lipstick than the Lady Byng Trophy, but that was over 30 years ago, and I think hockey has come a long way since then. There’s a lot less fighting than there once was, and being able to play the game without taking penalties is, at least in my book, something to be proud of.
In his six-year career, the Habs’ captain hasn’t taken many penalties. As a rookie, playing 71 games in 2019-20, he was only assessed six minutes. Then, as a sophomore, he spent 26 minutes in the box over 56 games. In his third season, he was in the sin bin for 30 minutes, in his fourth year for 33 minutes, for 36 in his fifth, and, finally, for only eight minutes in 82 games this year.
Quite an improvement, really, but I believe he hasn't even finished improving. Suzuki is a very cerebral player; he understands the game and its limits, and he knows how to avoid crossing the line. Considering how unpredictable the referees can be in the NHL, that’s almost an art. What the captain knows as well is that he’s much more helpful to his team on the ice than in the penalty box, and fewer penalties also mean more ice time.
There’s a reason why the 25-year-old had the most productive season of his career. Sure, playing on both power play units down the stretch helped, but the fact that he spent so much time on the ice helped as well, and so did the fact that he wasn’t used on the penalty kill.
In previous seasons, he spent a lot of energy chasing the puck when the Canadiens were down a man, but this year, thanks to Martin St-Louis’ decision to make Josh Anderson a penalty killer, Suzuki didn’t have to do that. Year after year, his offensive production has gone up since his sophomore season.
From 41 points in 2020-21 to 61 points a year later, then 66 in 2022-23, 77 in 2023-24, and finally 89 this past year, just short of the 90-point mark, and he did it all while playing clean hockey.
What’s even more impressive, though, is that he did it while playing a complete two-way game. While he wasn’t used on the penalty kill, Suzuki excels at the defensive side of the game, and trying to get the puck away from an opponent is often how players will receive tripping or holding calls. Still, Suzuki is slowly but surely mastering the art of doing it without breaking any rules.
It’s still too early to say what the captain’s ceiling will be, but to me, it seems logical that somewhere down the line, he’ll be in the conversation for two individual awards at least: the Lady Byng and the Frank J. Selke Trophies.
While Suzuki is getting all the credit he deserves in his market, he’s underrated in many others. His 89 points this season were the sixth-highest total by a centerman in the NHL this season. It’s more than Mark Scheifele, Matt Duchene, Tim Stutzle, John Tavares, and Sebastian Aho, to name a few.
Still, he’s nowhere to be seen in the first or second all-star team voting conducted amongst the Professional Hockey Writers Association after the regular season. Of course, voters were only asked to vote for their top three players at each position, but still, if Jake Guentzel got a third-place vote, I struggle to see how Suzuki didn’t get any.
The fact that he didn’t get any may be motivation for the captain, though. Being omitted from the Team Canada roster for the Four Nations Face-Off served him well this past season; perhaps this omission will lead him to yet another career year in the 2025-26 campaign. One thing’s for sure: he will be one of the players to watch when the puck drops on the new season, especially if the Canadiens finally have a real second line, one that would take some of the pressure and scrutiny away from the captain’s line.
Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
Canadiens stories, analysis, breaking news, and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News, never to miss a story.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.