NHL Awards 2012: Jonathan Quick and Players Who Were Robbed of Top Honors

It may be true that the NHL awards ceremony itself has degenerated into a joke, but the actual awards are as prestigious as they have ever been.

Some of the greatest players in NHL history have won the Hart, Vezina and Art Ross Trophies, and when a player wins one of those awards today, it validates them as one of the game's elite players.

Many of the awards were correctly handed out on Wednesday, but there were a few that left many hockey fans scratching their collective heads.

Here are three players who were robbed of taking home the hardware on Wednesday and certainly have a gripe if they feel they were deserving of the respective awards they were up for.

Jonathan Quick

I fully realize that playoff performance has nothing to do with NHL award voting, but Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick still deserved to win the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender.

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist won the award after three years of falling just short, and while he was a good choice, he was not the best one. The regular-season statistics of Quick and Lundqvist were extremely close, but extenuating circumstances suggest that Quick should have been the winner.

Quick had a slightly better goals against average and two more shutouts, while Lundqvist had a slightly better save percentage and four more wins. The issue, though, is that Lundqvist had far more offensive support during the regular season. The Kings offense came to life during the playoffs, but L.A. was the second-lowest scoring team in the league during the regular season. Quick was often on his own, and if not for him, there is no way the Kings would have even made the postseason.

Shea Weber

The Norris Trophy, which has traditionally been given to the best defenseman in the NHL, seems to have evolved over the past several years.

It has not been noticeable since Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and Boston Bruins rearguard Zdeno Chara have dominated the voting in recent years, but there is now much more emphasis on offense. With Lidstrom retiring, it is likely that this will continue to be the case moving forward.

Ottawa Senators blueliner Erik Karlsson won the award thanks to his 78 points this season, while Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber fell just short. There is no doubt the Karlsson was the best offensive defenseman in the league, but the award should go to a complete defenseman.

Weber is excellent offensively as evidenced by his 19 goals, but he is also great defensively as he was a plus-21. Defense is the most important aspect of being a defenseman, and it should not be forgotten.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

The Calder Trophy given to the NHL's best rookie had three strong candidates this season in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Edmonton Oilers, Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche and Adam Henrique of the New Jersey Devils.

Landeskog was the winner as he put up 52 points in 82 games, but I can't help but think that RNH deserved it a bit more. Nugent-Hopkins had 52 points as well, but he did it in 20 less games as he was sidelines with injuries for part of the season.

I understand that durability is important, but if you were to project Nugent-Hopkins' season out over a full 82-game slate, he probably would have outscored Landeskog by about 15 points.

Both players were extremely impressive this season and immediately contributed to their respective teams, but Nugent-Hopkins entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick and lived up to all of the hype. With that in mind, I would have given him the nod over Landeskog.

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