Awarding the NHL's Best

Remember last season, when, instead of waiting until the NHL Awards, the NHL decided to announce some of the awards one at a time during the playoffs, while saving the big ones for the NHL Awards?  Yeh, that was terrible, wasn't it?  The whole point of the NHL Awards is to do them all at once!  So, it's good to see the NHL has returned to its senses and the NHL Awards will once again all be presented on the same night (like they should be).

My favorite thing about the NHL Awards is that there are so many, and each has its own named trophy.  The NBA and MLB have put names on their awards, but there are so few of them.  The NFL, of course, has been doing its own awards the night before the Super Bowl for about a decade now.  They somehow stretch that show out enough so that it takes two hours, but they also include the Hall of Fame announcement and have a bunch of stupid awards that are voted on by fans.  And the "trophies" are all the same.  Not so in the NHL!

As for who'll win, you'll have to figure we'll see a lot of Boston Bruins honored after their historic regular season.  The big award, though, the Hart Trophy, seems poised to be presented to the man who has emerged as the best player in the NHL...by a wide margin!

Hart: Connor McDavid, Oilers-With all due respect to the Bruins' David Pastrnak, who absolutely had an MVP-caliber season, his MVP-caliber numbers were nowhere near those put up by McDavid.  He led the league in goals (64), assists (89) and, obviously, points (163).  McDavid is the Oilers' captain, but he's also their best player.  In fact, he might be the best player in the entire league!

Norris: Erik Karlsson, Sharks-This one really is a toss up.  Cale Makar won both the Norris and the Conn Smythe last season and is arguably the top defenseman in the NHL.  But he only played 60 games this season (and is still a finalist!).  Erik Karlsson, meanwhile, played all 82 games and had 101 points.  That's a lot for a forward, let alone a defenseman.

Vezina: Linus Ullmark, Bruins-Boston doesn't put together the regular season it does without Linus Ullmark in goal.  Simply put, he was sensational in 2022-23.  He made 48 starts and had 40 wins, while also leading the league in save percentage (.938) and goals against average (1.89).  If there's any sort of knock on him, it could be that he only played in 48 games, while fellow Vezina finalists Connor Hellebuyck and Ilya Sorokin both started at least 60.  And Ullmark STILL led the league in wins, goals against and save percentage!

Calder: Matty Beiners, Kraken-When Seattle drafted Matt Beiners, the thought was that he'd quickly become the young face of the young franchise.  We're well underway towards that being exactly what happens.  Beiners had 24 goals and 57 points in his first full season, and the Kraken made the playoffs for the first time.

Ted Lindsay: Connor McDavid, Oilers-If, for some reason, McDavid doesn't win the Hart, it would be surprising.  If he doesn't win the Ted Lindsay Award it'll be downright shocking!  This is the NHLPA's MVP, voted on by the players themselves.  And if anyone knows that Connor McDavid isn't just the best, but the most valuable player, in the NHL, it should be the other players.  The Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award usually end up going to the same person, which should be the case again this year.

Selke: Patrice Bergeron, Bruins-It sure seems like Bergeron is a Selke finalist every year, doesn't it?  This is his 12th straight time in the top three of the voting, and Bergeron has won the Selke five times, including last year.  There's no reason to think he won't make it two in a row and six overall.  It's basically Bergeron's award to lose until he finally decides to retire.

Lady Byng: Brayden Point, Lightning-During the playoffs, I'm part of a game with some of my Facebook friends where we predict who'll score the game-winning goal for every game that goes to overtime.  The running joke with Tampa Bay is that I pick Brayden Point so often, it turned into ALWAYS Brayden Point.  He's pretty good during the regular season, too.  Point scored 51 goals, including nine game-winners this year.  But on top of that, and the reason he's up for the Lady Byng, was he took a grand total of one minor penalty this season.  One!  On Nov. 3.  Point played the last 71 games without going to the box (although, he did get a fighting major on Feb. 7).

King Clancy: Darnell Nurse, Oilers-The King Clancy is always a tough one to predict because it doesn't really have anything to do with how they performed on the ice.  It's a humanitarian award.  Looking at the finalists and their resumes, though, the choice is clear to me.  The Flames' Mikael Backlund for his work fighting ALS, as well as everything else he does for children in the Calgary area.

Masterson: Kris Letang, Penguins-Congratulations to Clayton Keller and Alex Stalock for not just making it all the way back and resuming their NHL careers, but for putting up quality numbers this season.  And for being Masterson Trophy finalists.  What they did pales in comparison to what Kris Letang overcome, however.  He suffered a stroke in November and was back on the ice two weeks later!  Then het got hurt and missed a month, and his dad died during that month.  Letang was still among the top 10 in the league in average ice time.  Other players across the NHL have said how inspired they were by Letang.  That's perhaps the biggest compliment of all.

Adams: Jim Montgomery, Bruins-Boston set NHL records for wins and points and ran away with the President's Trophy.  Case closed.  Jim Montgomery is your Coach of the Year.  Dave Hakstol took Seattle to the playoffs for the first time in its second season as a franchise, and Lindy Ruff once again proved he's one of the best coaches in the league by orchestrating the Devils' return to the postseason.  But the Kraken and Devils didn't do what the Bruins did during the regular season.  And, sorry, but that can't be overlooked.  Especially when you consider Montgomery was in his first season with Boston.

GM: Bill Zito, Panthers-They don't present this one at the NHL Awards.  They wait until the Draft.  But I'm including it here anyway.  And I'm giving it to Florida GM Bill Zito.  The Panthers won the President's Trophy in 2021-22, but got swept out of the playoffs in the second round.  This season, they barely got in as the East's No. 8 seed and went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.  Zito brought in Paul Maurice as head coach, completed a blockbuster trade for Matthew Tkachuk, and reinforced the team with some key free agent signings.  All of them played key roles in Florida beating the East's No. 1, 2 and 3 seeds in the playoffs.