Last season, there was talk around November that rookie James Van Riemsdyk could be a legitimate contender for the Calder Memorial Trophy, given to the best rookie in the NHL as voted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
JVR quickly hit a wall production wise and those discussions ran dry. This season, though, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has been included in many circles as a possible candidate for a Calder nomination.
Bob’s highlight this season has been his twelve game starting streak where the team went 9-2-1. He currently has a 0.918 save percentage, 2.46 goals-against-average, and a 24-9-4 record.
He hasn’t been the wunderkind that everyone seemed to expect after that streak, having come down to Earth a bit. Still, as a 22 year-old in the NHL with no prior experience in North America aside from the preseason, he’s been playing far better than anyone would expect.
The last five Calder Trophy winners were Tyler Myers (Buffalo Sabres), goaltender Steve Mason (Columbus Blue Jackets), Patrick Kane, Evgeni Malkin, and Alexander Ovechkin.
Last season, twenty six year-old goaltender Jimmy Howard (Detroit Red Wings) was a nominee, having eclipsed veteran Chris Osgood for the starting role. Howard had 25 consecutive starts at one point and finished 37-15-10.
In 2009, Mason broke a number of records as one of the best goalies in the league. In addition to the Calder, he was also nominated for the Vezina Trophy, given to the league’s best goaltender. Mason has been disappointing since then, but his 2008-09 season performance surpassed where Bob is now.
Other rookies considered to be frontrunners are Logan Couture (San Jose Sharks), Jeff Skinner (Carolina Hurricanes), and Michael Grabner (New York Islanders). All these forwards have surpassed expectations coming into the season and have taken on top six roles in their respective organizations.
Another rookie goaltender under consideration is Michael Neuvirth of the Washington Capitals, but Bob has currently bested him both statistically and from a story perspective. Neuvirth was the Calder Cup winning goaltender with the Hershey Bears, after all, while Bob came from the “Oilers” equivalent of the KHL.
There is still hockey left to be played in the regular season before the Calder nominees are selected. Bob has certainly exceeded expectations in Philadelphia, but it’s not a guarantee he gets recognized as one of the best three rookies in the NHL.
Skinner’s gotta be a 2-1 favorite at this point. Bob’s been falling off and no one else on that list comes close to Skinner, IMO.