This Calder's Bound for Columbus

It was just a week ago that the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings in the highest viewed Game Seven in over 35 years, but tomorrow night in Las Vegas, the NHL will take one more look back on the season that was before marking the real beginning of the off-season.

Starting off my predictions for tomorrow's ceremony is the Calder Memorial Trophy. The Calder Trophy is, in short, the NHL's award for rookie of the year. The nominees all reside in the Western Conference with Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Kris Versteeg of the Chicago Blackhawks and Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks being finalists for the 72nd naming of the trophy.

Mason, a 22-year old Ontario native, played phenomenally for the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he posted a 33-20-7 record, including a league-leading 10 shutouts and was the biggest driving force towards the Jackets march to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in their short history. Despite his strong start, the wingers opposing him are no fourth-line grinders.

Kris Versteeg has been nothing but a pleasant surprise for the Chicago Blackhawks. Versteeg was originally obtained from the Boston Bruins in a (now regrettable for Bruin faithful) trade that gave the Bruins forward Brandon Bochenski and has surprised even his harshest of critics in his first full NHL season. Versteeg scored 22 goals and tallied 31 assists in what was a very note-worthy rookie season in the Windy City.

Bobby Ryan's season has been an incredible one, despite it starting out in the AHL with the Iowa Chops. His 31 goals in 64 games were second only to Corey Perry (32) and Ryan's effectiveness on the power-play were more than helpful in the Ducks successful bid towards the NHL Playoffs.

Despite the strong post-season play of Versteeg and Ryan, this one's going to the 'tender, as Steve Mason will join the company of Calder winning goalies such as Martin Brodeur, Ed Belfour, Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito.

For the sake of Columbus and Mason, let's hope he doesn't end up with the reputation of Andrew Raycroft and become a could-have-been, one-year-wonder or a trivia question that will stymie even the biggest hockey brainiacs.

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