The NHL will hold their annual awards ceremony on June 20th, a few days before the 2018 Entry Draft. The event will be held in Las Vegas once again, an exciting proposition for the Golden Knights who could be coming off a historic Stanley Cup victory in their first season.
Finalists will start to be announced in just a few days on April 17th, with the Vezina Trophy kicking things off. This awards season has been even more debated than usual, with almost a dozen legitimate candidates for the Hart Trophy and no consensus on other top awards like the Norris or Selke.
- Ken Holland is back in the Detroit Red Wings front office, but he is willing to bring in some more voices to help strengthen the club’s decision making. That’s what Craig Custance of The Athletic (subscription required) examines in his latest piece, digging into who could be potential additions. An interesting name that comes up is Kyle Raftis, GM of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and successor to Toronto whiz-kid Kyle Dubas.
- Tod Leiweke has officially been announced as CEO and President of the prospective Seattle expansion team, joining his brother Tim Leiweke who is already part of the Oak View Group that placed the bid and will be minority owner. The pair have tons of experience running professional sports teams, including Tod’s stint as CEO of the Seattle Seahawks in the past.
Bruce C has to be considered for coach of the year I personally believe a favorite
Nobody beats out Gallant this year
I get that but what Bruce did with b’s was out standing but your probably right
I’m a Bruins fan & I don’t see Cassidy even be a finalist. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve to be, because he does. He’s done a great job with a young team & navigated them through a lot of injuries. However, Gallant is a lock to win. Then, you have Bednar in Colorado who took the worst team in the league last season to the playoffs this year. Then, there is Hynes in New Jersey who took the Devils to the playoffs unexpectedly. Then, you also have Maurice in Winnipeg who took a team that was awful defensively last season to one of the top teams in the west. That is an uphill battle for Cassidy to fight to even be a finalist despite the great job he has done.
No consensus on other top awards? I think it is pretty clear on who the favorites are for the Selke & Norris. The Selke is probably between Bergeron & Kopitar & the Norris is probably between Hedman & Doughty. As for the Hart, there is a lot of legitimate candidates, but Hall & MacKinnon should be locks as finalists. That would leave one spot between Kopitar, Giroux, Wheeler, Marchand & Malkin. Sorry, McDavid isn’t a candidate. Yes, he had great numbers, but his team didn’t play a meaningful game the last 2 and half months of the season & missed the playoffs by 17 points. For a player to be the MVP, his team has to at least be in the playoff race. If they had an award for offensive player of the year, then you could give that to McDavid, but not the Hart.
I agree with all of this
The 3rd guy should be Kopitar. Maybe Giroux. Either of those guys leave the team and the team is beyond terrible.
Should be interesting who gets it between McKinnon and Hall. McKinnon more points, Hall more PPG and 40pts more than the 2nd place player on the Devils…coin toss
Ken Holland is the most successful GM in the NHL he has more then 250 wins then any other GM since he joined the red wings and has won 4 Stanley cups(97,98,02,08) don’t understand why he needs to keep proving himself
Because today’s league isn’t one where you can just spend as much as you want. He’s a hall of famer but some of the wings’ contracts are inexcusable