Predicting the Top Candidates for the 2015-16 Calder Trophy
With the calendar about to flip over to August, offseason business for most NHL teams is wrapping up. The best free-agency prizes have been claimed, blockbuster trades have been made and most teams have positioned themselves within the constraints of next year's salary cap.
The next big item on the agenda will be seeing which rookies manage to stick with their NHL clubs next season—and which ones excel enough to earn Calder Trophy consideration as rookie of the year.
According to NHL.com, Calder Trophy candidates must be aged 26 or younger on September 15 of their season of eligibility. Those eligible players must have also played 25 games or fewer in the NHL or any other major professional league, such as the KHL, and have not played six games or more in each of the two previous seasons.
Broadly speaking, the Calder tends to be awarded to the rookie forward with the highest point totals, but there are certainly some exceptions. Last season, Aaron Ekblad captured the award straight out of junior hockey—the first defenseman to win since Tyler Myers back in 2010.
Once in a while, a goaltender gets the nod. The last time that happened was with Steve Mason, who appeared in a stunning 61 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets as a 20-year-old in 2008-09.
The 2015-16 rookie class will include minor leaguers who make the jump to the big leagues, college players who have just turned pro and, of course, two very high-profile picks from June's draft.
This year's second-tier group of honorable mentions could include forwards such as Sam Reinhart of the Buffalo Sabres, Stefan Matteau of the New Jersey Devils—even diminutive Rocco Grimaldi of the Florida Panthers, who will get a chance to follow in Johnny Gaudreau's footsteps from last season.
Defensive honorable mentions could include Griffin Reinhart of the Edmonton Oilers and Klas Dahlbeck of the Arizona Coyotes, while Philipp Grubauer will look to make a statement as Braden Holtby's backup in net for Washington.
Click through for an early look at next year's potential All-Rookie Team: the top six Calder candidates for 2015-16.
Connor McDavid: Edmonton Oilers
1 of 6
Age to start 2015-16 Season: 18—drafted first overall in 2015
2014-15 Stats
- OHL—Erie Otters: 47 GP, 44-76-120; playoffs 20 GP, 21-28-49
Total NHL Games Played: 0
Rookie-Season Outlook
Connor McDavid will begin his NHL career with the Edmonton Oilers with stratospheric expectations on his shoulders.
It won't be enough for him to match the early promise of his teammates who were also taken first overall by the Oilers in recent years—Taylor Hall in 2010, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in 2011 and Nail Yakupov in 2012. Anything short of a Sidney Crosby-level impact on his team will be a disappointment from generational talent McDavid.
Crosby scored 39 goals and 102 points in his rookie season 10 years ago, good for sixth in the NHL scoring race that year. It wasn't until his second season that the Pittsburgh Penguins returned to the playoff picture, where they've remained ever since.
It's a lofty ask, but McDavid will need to finish in the top 10 in league scoring and lock down next season's Calder Trophy to live up to the sky-high expectations that have been placed on him.
Jack Eichel: Buffalo Sabres
2 of 6
Age to start 2015-16 Season: 18—drafted second overall in 2015
2014-15 Stats
- H-East—Boston University: 40 GP, 26-45-71
Total NHL Games Played: 0
Rookie Season Outlook
If Connor can't do it, maybe Jack can?
To say fan anticipation in Buffalo is running high for Jack Eichel feels a bit understated. According to Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News, the Sabres hosted 17,115 fans at the First Niagara Center on July 10 for Eichel's first team scrimmage, the climax of the team's week-long development camp.
At the NHL Scouting Combine in early June, Eichel made headlines when he "told his questioners, in a respectful but confident manner, that he would be better than Connor McDavid, his Canadian foil," according to Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe.
The gauntlet has been dropped. Eichel is also a serious contender for next year's Calder Trophy.
Sam Bennett: Calgary Flames
3 of 6
Age to start 2015-16 Season: 19—drafted fourth overall in 2014
2014-15 Stats
- NHL—Calgary Flames: 1 GP, 0-1-1; playoffs 11 GP, 3-1-4
- OHL—Kingston Frontenacs: 11 GP, 11-13-24
Total NHL Games Played: 1 regular season, 11 playoffs
Rookie Season Outlook
The forward with the best chance of snatching the next available Calder away from McDavid or Eichel is Sam Bennett of the Calgary Flames.
Drafted fourth overall one year ago, Bennett looked like he would stick at the NHL level out of training camp until the Flames announced on the cusp of the 2014-15 season he'd be sidelined for four to six months after undergoing shoulder surgery, per NHL.com.
When healthy, Bennett returned to his junior team, the Kingston Frontenacs, in late February before the Flames called him up at the end of the NHL season.
Bennett proved to be an integral part of Calgary's first-round upset of the Vancouver Canucks, gaining valuable big league experience that will give him a leg up on the 18-year-olds he's vying with for this year's Calder Trophy consideration.
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Darnell Nurse: Edmonton Oilers
4 of 6
Age to start 2015-16 Season: 20—drafted seventh overall in 2013
2014-15 Stats:
- NHL—Edmonton Oilers: 2 GP, 0-0-0
- AHL—Oklahoma City Barons, playoffs: 4 GP, 0-4-4
- OHL—Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds: 36 GP, 10-23-33
Total NHL Games Played: 2
Rookie Season Outlook
On the blue line, the most intriguing rookie to watch this fall will be Darnell Nurse of the Edmonton Oilers.
Another first-rounder to add to the new-look Oiler mix, Nurse earned rave reviews from Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal at the Oilers' summer development camp. McCurdy said Nurse is "more than ready to turn pro" and complimented him on his skating, his athleticism and his physical play.
"The only questions about [Nurse's] NHL-readiness revolve around his ability to read the game and to re-calibrate his risk/reward assessments at the pro level," McCurdy suggests. Expect to see Nurse use his big body checks to announce himself during his first tour around the league this fall.
Stephen Johns: Dallas Stars
5 of 6
Age to start 2015-16 Season: 23—drafted 60th overall in 2010
2014-15 Stats
- AHL—Rockford IceHogs: 54 GP, 4-17-21; playoffs 8 GP, 3-4-7
Total NHL Games Played: 0
Rookie Season Outlook
The other player the Dallas Stars acquired when they picked up Patrick Sharp from the Chicago Blackhawks, Stephen Johns is an older rookie—already 23—who came up via the college route at Notre Dame and has one full year of minor pro experience under his belt at the AHL level.
Last November, the Stars pulled a 22-year-old fifth-round draft pick named John Klingberg out of their system and gave him the ice time to finish the year leading all rookie defensemen with 40 points.
Dallas general manager Jim Nill knows exactly what he's getting with the 6'3", 229-pound Johns. "I've known Stephen since he was 17 years of age," Nill told NHL.com in July after Johns was acquired.
With his size and his skill set, don't be surprised to see Johns in regular rotation—and putting up numbers—for the Stars during the second half of next season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy: Tampa Bay Lightning
6 of 6
Age to start 2015-16 Season: 21—drafted 19th overall in 2012
2014-15 Stats
- NHL—Tampa Bay Lightning: 16 GP, 7-5-1, 2.36 GAA .918 save percentage
- NHL playoffs—Tampa Bay: 4 GP, 1-1-0, 3.19 GAA, .895 save percentage
- AHL—Syracuse Crunch: 25 GP, 14-6-5, 2.45 GAA, .917 save percentage
Total NHL Games Played: 16 regular season, 4 playoffs
Rookie Season Outlook
After being drafted in the first round by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2012, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy's first North American season included a healthy dose of trial by fire in 2014-15.
The Lightning started the season with the then-39-year-old Evgeni Nabokov as their backup while Vasilevskiy learned the North American game in the AHL, but they changed course when the youngster outdueled the veteran during his first NHL call-up while starter Ben Bishop was sidelined during the second half of December.
Nabokov played his last game in Tampa Bay on January 12, leaving Vasilevskiy to back up Bishop for the rest of the year, including a tumultuous ride through the playoffs.
The young Russian showed nerves of steel when he was asked to step in to relieve a distressed Bishop in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and start Game 4.
Playing behind the injury-prone Bishop, it's more than likely Vasilevskiy will get enough playing time to get himself into Calder Trophy consideration during his first full NHL season in 2015-16.
All stats from HockeyDB.com.
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