HabsWorld.net --
Over the past couple of weeks, the NHL has been revealing some of its award winners in advance of Thursday’s award show. Tuesday was the Calder Trophy with Lane Hutson taking home the award.
The blueliner had quite the freshman year, quickly becoming Montreal’s go-to threat offensively while taking on more and more ice time as the year went on. Hutson wound up finishing with six goals and 60 assists in 82 games, while logging 22:44 per game of playing time. The latter two categories set a new franchise record for assists and points by a rookie defenceman, passing Chris Chelios. His assist total also tied Larry Murphy for the NHL record for helpers by a first-year defender.
He is just the fourth player in the NHL’s modern era to lead all rookies in points, joining Bobby Orr (1966-67), Brian Leetch (1988-89), and Quinn Hughes (in 2019-20).
Not surprisingly, that performance helped earn Hutson the bulk of the first place votes, taking 165 of 191. He finished second on the other 26 ballots, making him a unanimous top two selection. Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf finished second in voting while San Jose centre Macklin Celebrini was third and the only other player to appear on all 191 ballots.
It has been a while since Montreal had a Calder Trophy winner; Hutson is the Hab to win since Ken Dryden back in 1972. He was Montreal’s first finalist for the award since 2012-13 when Brendan Gallagher wound up finishing second in voting.
Full Voting Results
Points (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th)
1. Lane Hutson, MTL 1832 (165-26-0-0-0)
2. Dustin Wolf, CGY 1169 (15-96-59-17-1)
3. Macklin Celebrini, SJS 1104 (11-61-106-12-1)
4. Matvei Michkov, PHI 645 (0-8-26-151-6)
5. Cutter Gauthier, ANA 92 (0-0-0-6-74)
6. Will Smith, SJS 62 (0-0-0-2-56)
7. Logan Stankoven, CAR 22 (0-0-0-2-16)
8. Zack Bolduc, STL 20 (0-0-0-1-17)
9. Jackson Blake, CAR 9 (0-0-0-0-9)
10. Marco Kasper, DET 7 (0-0-0-0-7)
11. Mackie Samoskevich, FLA 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
t-12. Drew Helleson, ANA 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
t-12. Denton Mateychuk, CBJ 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
(10-7-5-3-1 points allocation)
