The 2024 NHL Awards show has come and gone. The winners have been revealed. Now it’s time to explain how I arrived at my final ballot on three major awards that were announced on Thursday night.
For the first time, I got the chance to vote on the NHL Awards as a member of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association. Once the winners are announced, all votes are made public for the sake of transparency. I am taking it one step further to explain my rationale on the Calder, Norris and Hart Trophies.
Before we dive into those three awards, some winners in which we got to vote on were previously announced. Aleksander Barkov won the Selke Trophy. He was first on my ballot. No one had a more complete year as a defensive forward than Barkov. He has a chance to become the next Patrice Bergeron with multiple wins. Auston Matthews was second on my ballot. His season was worthy of MVP consideration. More on that when we get to the Hart.
The Lady Byng Trophy was won by Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin. He was second on my ballot. I had Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor first. I looked at things such as role, time on ice and penalty minutes. Both played a lot and played the game that captures the spirit of the award. Slavin was a deserving winner.
Alright, without further ado, let’s look at my final ballot on the Calder, Norris and Hart trophies.
Calder Trophy
Winner: Connor Bedard
Mark’s Ballot
- 1. Connor Bedard
- 2. Brock Faber
- 3. Pyotr Kochetkov
- 4. Luke Hughes
- 5. Logan Cooley
Rationale: I had Faber winning this until the last month of the season when Bedard made a late charge. This went back and forth all season.
While Bedard’s offense popped, Faber’s defensive presence popped more. His TOI was in the top-10 of all defensemen. For a rookie to do that is beyond impressive. The fact that Bedard’s game was one sided gave me even more reason to put Faber first for most of the season.
The thing about these awards are that it’s the totality of the season. In that sense, Bedard being almost a point per game on that Blackhawks team when he was the clear driver put him over the top. Take nothing away from Faber’s season. For Bedard to put up those kind of numbers as a rookie when…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at The Hockey Writers…