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Cale Makar

Snapshots: Makar, Detroit, New Jersey

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Not only did Cale Makar take home the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman and win a Stanley Cup after just his third season in the league, but he was awarded the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP. It wasn’t a close race. All 18 voters selected the young Colorado Avalanche defenseman as the winner, utterly demolishing his only real competition in Nathan MacKinnon, who appeared on all but one ballot (15 second place votes, two third place).

It has been an incredible start to a career for Makar, who currently sits at 180 points in 178 regular season games, 60 more in 55 postseason contests, and now has three major individual awards before he even turns 24. His 29 points in this postseason are the fourth-most ever for a defenseman in a single year, trailing only Paul Coffey (37 in 1985), Brian Leetch (34 in 1994), and Al MacInnis (31 in 1989).

  • The Detroit Red Wings are getting closer to naming a head coach, now that they will be able to interview Tampa Bay Lightning assistants Jeff Halpern and Derek Lalonde. Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News writes that Lalonde is currently considered a slight favorite for the job after his impressive rise through the ranks as a head coach. The Tampa Bay assistant has previous stops as head man with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL, Toledo Walleye of the ECHL, and Iowa Wild of the AHL, having never experienced a losing season at any stop.
  • The New Jersey Devils have had preliminary contract talks with several pending free agents, including Mason Geertsen and A.J. Greer according to Ryan Novozinsky of NJ.com, but not Frederik Gauthier, who is set to hit the open market next month. It appears as though the 2013 first-round pick might have to find a new place to ply his trade, even after his best minor league season to date. The 27-year-old Gauthier had 32 points in 51 games for the Utica Comets but was held scoreless in eight NHL contests.

Award Notes: Jim Gregory Award Finalists, All-Rookie Team, All-Star Teams

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While there were five awards handed out on Tuesday, there is still one more to be announced.  That one is the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.  It’s voted on by all 32 NHL GMs as well as some NHL executives at the end of the second round.  Not surprisingly, all three of the finalists, who were named during the NHL Awards show, were among the four to help lead their teams to the conference finals including Julien BriseBois of the Lightning, Chris Drury of the Rangers, and Joe Sakic of the Avalanche.  Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello won the award a year ago.  The winner for this won’t be announced until partway through the first round of the draft next month in Montreal.

More news from awards night:

Cale Makar Wins The 2022 Norris Trophy

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On Tuesday, the final five NHL awards are being handed out.  The second-last award of the night was the James Norris Memorial Trophy, handed out to the NHL’s best defenseman.  This year’s winner is Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar.  The other finalists were Predators blueliner Roman Josi and Lightning rearguard Victor Hedman.

Makar led all defensemen in goals this season with 28, becoming just the fifth blueliner in the last 30 years to get that many goals.  He also finished second in points (86) to Josi, who had 96.  While thought of as an offense-first defender, Makar took a regular turn on Colorado’s penalty kill this season as well which helped him average 25:40 per contest.  While this voting doesn’t cover his playoff performance, the 23-year-old has been dominant in the postseason as well, picking up 26 points in 17 games while his ATOI has jumped up to a little under 27 minutes a night.

Interestingly enough, Makar actually finished second to Josi in first-place votes, 98-92.  However, Makar had 22 more second-place selections (98-72) which helped him garner 25 more voting points to secure the victory.  He was also the only player to appear on all 195 ballots with Josi not being put on one of them.  It’s the closest vote for this award since the 2011-12 campaign when Erik Karlsson edged Shea Weber for the award.  Only one other blueliner, Boston’s Charlie McAvoy, received a first-place vote.

The full results of the voting can be found here.

Poll: NHL Award Predictions

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Tonight’s the night that the stars gather to hand out some fancy hardware at the 2022 NHL Awards in Tampa. Kenan Thompson will return to host the show, which will be the first live award event since 2019, with the last two canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The event will announce the winners of the Hart Trophy, the Norris Trophy, the Vezina Trophy, the Calder Trophy, and the Ted Lindsay Award, five of the most prestigious individual awards in hockey. With just a few hours before things kick off, let’s see if the PHR community can predict the winners of each.

For the Hart, given to the player “judged most valuable to his team,” the finalists are Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers. Remember that these are all regular season awards with a vote before the playoffs begin.

 

The Norris, given to the defenseman “who demonstrated throughout the season the greatest all-around ability at the position,” is down to Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, and Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The latter two are doing battle for a much bigger prize but could still add some hardware to their cases tonight if they can topple the Predators captain.

 

The Vezina, given to the best goaltender in the NHL and voted on by the league’s general managers, will be given to one of Shesterkin, Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames, or Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators. None of the three have won the award previously, meaning we’ll have a new name engraved this year.

 

Three very different rookies are on the ballot for the Calder, given to the top first-year player in the league. Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings and Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks will battle with 26-year-old Michael Bunting of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who finally got a chance to play regular minutes in the NHL and responded well.

 

Given the prestige of the Hart, the Ted Lindsay is sometimes overlooked as a major award but it shouldn’t be. The player-voted “most outstanding” award is a huge honor given it comes from direct peers and does not always go to the same recipient as the Hart. This year even the finalists are different, with Matthews and McDavid being joined by Josi on the ballot.

 

Cast your vote and make sure to come back to leave a comment with how many you got correct!

2022 Norris Trophy Finalists Announced

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The NHL has started to release their award finalists, this time announcing the three nominees for the Norris Trophy. The award is given out to the top defenseman “who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.” Last year’s winner was Adam Fox of the New York Rangers, but he won’t be defending his title this time around.

This year’s finalists are Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, and Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Josi, winner of the award in 2020, nearly reached an unfathomable offensive level this season when he scored 23 goals and 96 points for the Predators. He became the highest-scoring defenseman in nearly three decades and joined a group of Hall of Fame defensemen with at least 96 points in a single season. Only Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis, Brian Leetch, Denis Potvin, Phil Housley, and Ray Bourque have ever reached those heights previously, nearly a Mount Rushmore of offensive NHL defensemen. It is the second time he has been named a finalist, following his win two years ago.

Makar, still just 23 years old, has now been a finalist in back-to-back seasons after finishing second in voting last year. The Avalanche phenom led all defensemen with 28 goals and racked up 86 points, pushing his career total just over a point-per-game through three seasons. It’s hard to fathom the ceiling for the 2017 fourth-overall pick, who also took strides defensively this year and once again was one of the most valuable players in the league by many metrics. Makar averaged nearly 26 minutes a game and set highs in more traditional defensive statistics like +/- (+48), blocks (110), and hits (95).

Hedman is probably used to this by now, after being a finalist in each of the last five seasons previous. He won the award in 2018, a season that paled in comparison (at least offensively) to this year. The big Tampa Bay blueliner racked up his first 20-goal season and pied on a career-best 85 points, while playing in all 82 games for the first time in his 13-year career. Averaging more than 25 minutes a night in all situations, Hedman is carving out a career that will have him considered among the very best the game has ever produced when it is all said and done.

Tomorrow, the award announcements will continue with the three finalists for the Vezina Trophy.

NHL Announces Player Assignments For Skills Competition

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The NHL All-Star Skills competition will take place tomorrow night in Las Vegas, and the league has announced ahead of time which players will participate in which events. The player assignments for the seven events are as follows:

Fastest Skater

Chris Kreider, NYR
Adrian Kempe, LAK
Kyle Connor, WPG
Evgeny Kuznetsov, WSH
Jordan Kyrou, STL
Dylan Larkin, DET
Cale Makar, COL
Connor McDavid, EDM           

Save Streak

Jack Campbell, TOR
Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL
Frederik Andersen, CAR
Tristan Jarry, PIT
Cam Talbot, MIN
Juuse Saros, NSH
Thatcher Demko, VAN
John Gibson, ANA

Fountain Face-Off

Jonathan Huberdeau, FLA
Claude Giroux, PHI
Jordan Eberle, SEA
Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson
Roman Josi, NSH
Nick Suzuki, MTL
Zach Werenski, CBJ
Mark Stone, VGK

Hardest Shot

Adam Pelech, NYI
Timo Meier, SJS
Victor Hedman, TBL
Tom Wilson, WSH

Breakaway Challenge

Goalies: Manon Rhéaume & Wyatt Russell

Kirill Kaprizov, MIN
Trevor Zegras, ANA
Jack Hughes, NJD
Alex DeBrincat, CHI
Alex Pietrangelo, VGK

Las Vegas NHL 21 in ’22

Nazem Kadri, COL
Auston Matthews, TOR
Joe Pavelski, DAL
Steven Stamkos, TBL
Brady Tkachuk, OTT

Accuracy Shooting

Leon Draisaitl, EDM
Clayton Keller, ARI
Rasmus Dahlin, BUF
Sebastian Aho, CAR
Jake Guentzel, PIT
Troy Terry, ANA
Johnny Gaudreau, CGY
Patrice Bergeron, BOS
Jonathan Marchessault, VGK

Two new events, the Fountain Face-Off and 21 in ’22 will be held outside in the Bellagio fountain and Las Vegas strip respectively. Individual winners of each event will earn $30,000.

2022 NHL All-Star Game Rosters Revealed

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Jan 26: After Batherson was injured last night, the league has announced that Brady Tkachuk will replace him and be the Senators’ representative.

Jan 13: During a live reveal on ESPN’s SportsCenter program in the United States, the National Hockey League unveiled their four divisional rosters for the 2022 NHL All-Star Game in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Eight skaters and two goalies were announced for each team, leaving one skater spot open for each division. That last spot will once again be decided by a fan vote, who they can select by voting at NHL.com/LastMenIn.

The head coaches of each team were announced earlier, decided by the teams in first place (by points percentage) in their division on New Years Day. Florida’s Andrew Brunette heads the Atlantic Division, Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour will coach the Metropolitan Division, Colorado’s Jared Bednar is the bench boss for the Central Division, and Vegas’ Peter DeBoer will serve as the Pacific Division’s coach.

Below are the full rosters for each division.

Atlantic Division

F Auston Matthews “C” (Toronto Maple Leafs)
F Drake Batherson (Ottawa Senators)
F Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins)
F Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida Panthers)
F Dylan Larkin (Detroit Red Wings)
F Nick Suzuki (Montreal Canadiens)
D Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo Sabres)
D Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning)
G Jack Campbell (Toronto Maple Leafs)
G Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning)

Metropolitan Division

F Alex Ovechkin “C” (Washington Capitals)
F Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Claude Giroux (Philadelphia Flyers)
F Jack Hughes (New Jersey Devils)
F Chris Kreider (New York Rangers)
D Adam Fox (New York Rangers)
D Adam Pelech (New York Islanders)
D Zach Werenski (Columbus Blue Jackets)
G Frederik Andersen (Carolina Hurricanes)
G Tristan Jarry (Pittsburgh Penguins)

Central Division

F Nathan MacKinnon “C” (Colorado Avalanche)
F Kyle Connor (Winnipeg Jets)
F Alex DeBrincat (Chicago Blackhawks)
F Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota Wild)
F Clayton Keller (Arizona Coyotes)
F Jordan Kyrou (St. Louis Blues)
F Joe Pavelski (Dallas Stars)
D Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche)
G Juuse Saros (Nashville Predators)
G Cam Talbot (Minnesota Wild)

Pacific Division

F Connor McDavid “C” (Edmonton Oilers)
F Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers)
F Jordan Eberle (Seattle Kraken)
F Johnny Gaudreau (Calgary Flames)
F Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles Kings)
F Timo Meier (San Jose Sharks)
F Mark Stone (Vegas Golden Knights)
D Alex Pietrangelo (Vegas Golden Knights)
G Thatcher Demko (Vancouver Canucks)
G John Gibson (Anaheim Ducks)

Snapshots: Three Stars, Penguins, Avalanche

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The NHL has released the Three Stars for last week, and Alex Ovechkin has taken home the top spot once again. The Russian Machine notched his 28th career hat trick and totaled seven points on the week, taking him ahead of Connor McDavid and into second place in the league scoring race. His 19 goals in 22 games (at age-36 no less) have brought him within 145 of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record and has him just 17 behind Jaromir Jagr for third place. With four years left on his new extension and still 60 games left this season, it seems to be a matter of when, not if, Ovechkin will set the NHL record for goals.

Second and third place have been given to Tristan Jarry and Cale Makar respectively, after two more fantastic weeks. Jarry stopped 91 of 93 shots he faced to win all three games for the Pittsburgh Penguins, bringing his overall record to 10-4-3 on the year. The 26-year-old netminder has now played more minutes than any other goalie in the league and has a .936 save percentage on the year. Makar meanwhile is showing once again why he has been a Norris nominee through his first two seasons in the league, as the 23-year-old defenseman now has nine goals and 20 points in 16 games. That’s just two points behind John Carlson for the most by a defenseman, despite having played six fewer games so far and his 1.25 points-per-game rate ties him for sixth among all players (not just defensemen) that have suited up at least ten times.

  • While Jarry has led the Penguins to a better record of late, he might be getting some help soon. Evgeni Malkin was on the ice at practice today in a non-contact sweater, and though there’s still no exact timeline for his return to action, it’s good to see him back with teammates. The 35-year-old hasn’t played yet this season after offseason surgery but would obviously be a huge boost to the Penguins when healthy. That’s especially true now that Bryan Rust has been listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He’s not with the team on their current road trip, which starts tonight against the Calgary Flames and lasts through December 10.
  • Speaking of teams that may soon receive help, the Avalanche could have Nathan MacKinnon back on Wednesday according to Peter Baugh of The Athletic, who tweets that though nothing is official, it’s “looking like” the superstar center will return against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unfortunately, that news also comes with a bad injury update, as Ryan Murray is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury that the team is still evaluating. Murray lasted just 11 seconds before leaving the team’s game against Nashville on Saturday.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Fiala, Brooks

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The NHL has released their Three Stars for last week, headlined by Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau who takes home the top spot. Gaudreau put up four goals and seven points in four games last week, including two game-winning tallies. After a strong bounce-back campaign in 2020-21, the diminutive forward has upped his game once again and now has 22 points in 19 contests this season.

Second and third go to Ilya Samsonov and Cale Makar respectively, with each young player putting up a pair of outstanding performances. Samsonov didn’t allow a single goal in his two starts for the Washington Capitals, posting a pair of shutouts and raising his save percentage to .924 on the season. Makar meanwhile had five points in two games for the Colorado Avalanche, something that has become relatively routine for the young defenseman. Through 113 career games, Makar now has 107 points.

  • When Kevin Fiala and the Minnesota Wild settled on a one-year contract just a day ahead of his arbitration hearing this offseason, it raised some questions about his long-term future with the team. Other key forwards like Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek were being locked up well into the future, while the 25-year-old Fiala was now scheduled to be a free agent once again in 2022 after this $5.1MM contract expired. That’s when the Wild have some huge buyout penalties hitting the cap, making it challenging to go through the uncertainty of an arbitration process again with a player like Fiala. Yesterday, Michael Russo of The Athletic wrote about Fiala’s future with the team, suggesting it is “hard to see Fiala being long for this organization.” Today, Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman discuss it on Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts podcast, and note that though there is some smoke, Wild GM Bill Guerin has never been one into a decision.
  • It’s been several days since Adam Brooks was claimed off waivers by the Vegas Golden Knights, but he had not yet made his debut for the club due to some immigration issues that needed to be resolved. Resolved they’ve now been, and Brooks will be in the lineup for the Golden Knights this evening, head coach Pete DeBoer told reporters including David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Max Pacioretty, who is nearing a return, is on the trip but not yet quite ready to play tonight.

Avalanche Place Cale Makar On Injured Reserve

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The Colorado Avalanche have placed defenseman Cale Makar on injured reserve retroactive to Saturday, October 30, per Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater.

It’s unclear as to when the injury to Makar occurred. He played almost 25 minutes in Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild. It’s par for the course for Makar, who’s now averaged exactly 25 minutes per game this season as the Avs’ blueline has dealt with injury issues all season.

While his six points in eight games is a slow start to the season by Makar’s standards, he’s still tied for fourth on the team in points.

Kurtis MacDermid will likely draw into the lineup in his place, and Bowen Byram and Samuel Girard should both see elevated minutes and responsibilities. Devon Toews has still yet to play this season, but is approaching a return and could be a huge boost to a blueline that’s been shorthanded.

They’ve gotten good production from the rookie Byram, who potted his first NHL goal this season to go along with four assists.

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