Takin' a T/O with BT: Derick Brassard is Out of the Calder Race—Who's Left?

Injuries are a devastating nature of professional sports; whether they happen to a third line grinder or the face of your favorite franchise, there's nothing that can be done to avoid them—they're simply part of the game.

Whether it happens to a legend such as Joe Sakic, players in the prime of their careers as it did to Patrice Bergeron and Simon Gagne, or a rookie like Derick Brassard a season-ending injury is terrible.

The interesting thing about them however, is that they raise many different questions.

They bring questions about one's commitment to the game (How aggressively will he rehab? Will he come back early? How Hungry is he to play again?), questions about the team (How do they fill the hole? How will they respond?), and in this case, questions about awards.

Derick Brassard was a leading candidate for the Calder Trophy in the NHL this season with 25 points in 31 games. With 10 goals, he was one away from leading all rookies, and his +12 had him fourth amongst rookies.

In a very undervalued stat, Brassard was also first among rookies with a 48.5 faceoff percentage—a fairly solid mark for a team that's precisely in the middle of the NHL (15th) with a precisely in the middle ranking (50 percent).

Now that Brassard's surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder (suffered last Thursday in a fight with Dallas Stars' rookie James Neal) will keep him out for the rest of the season, the question has to be asked:

Who becomes the leading candidate for the Calder Trophy?

The easy question would be Chicago Blackhawks' rookie Kris Versteeg. Versteeg is currently tied with Brassard for the rookie scoring lead with 25 points, and he's played one fewer game (30) than Brassard.

While scoring three fewer goals than Brassard, Versteeg leads all rookies with 17 assists and his +13 is one better than the Columbus rookie's.

Versteeg also leads all rookie forwards in shifts per game (24.6), as well as ice time (17:58)—two categories dominated by defensemen.

However, while the argument for Versteeg can be fairly compelling, there are a few other choices out there making a strong case for the Calder Trophy.

Blake Wheeler is one of them.

After coming to Boston in the off-season, Wheeler has picked up his production to become one of the key cogs in a four-cylinder Bruins attack.

Wheeler's 11 goals tie him for first amongst rookies in the NHL, while he's got a commanding lead over teammate Matt Hunwick in the plus/minus race with a +19 (Hunwick comes in at second with a +13).

Wheeler also has two game-winning goals this season, tying him for second amongst rookies (even though it's not really a stat or anything), and has scored one of the prettiest goals of the year.

But before B's fans get too far ahead of themselves with Blake, the man that the commentators also mentioned was Patrik Berglund.

After Berglund began the season with only three points in his first eight games (as well as being slowed a bit by a groin injury), something clicked for him. Whether it was a rash of injuries to the St Louis lineup or just him finding his North American stride. Whatever it was, it hasn't subsided.

Since the start of November, Berglund has registered 18 points in 20 games, as well as three-straight, two point games. He's one of the three rookies tied atop the scoring race with 11 goals. His 21 points also have him third (technically second now that Brassard is injured) in the rookie scoring race.

Berglund is also second in power play goals amongst rookies with four, and his shooting percentage (21.6 percent) is second only to that of Blake Wheeler (22.4 percent) for rookies.

Despite his cold play lately, Mikhail Grabovski has 11 goals and 20 points on the year, which doesn't count him out of the scoring race by a long shot.

While forwards are getting all of the glory usually, there are two defensemen that should also get some consideration for the Calder.

Drew Doughty has come into a situation in Los Angeles that no one really expected anything much of. The Kings have some solid pieces to go forward with, but with no solid solution in net at the beginning of the year, and a young roster in a tough division, they were expected to run into a lot of trouble.

Although they have ran into a bit of trouble (13th in the Western Conference), Drew Doughty has been their shining star this season.

Amongst rookies, Doughty has seen some of the hardest minutes on a given night with the competition the Kings receive, and he's done a good job of pacing the Kings offense from the back end. His 23 minutes per night leads all rookies and he's third in average power play time on ice with just over four minutes.

The only real detractor from Doughty is his -5 rating, but this will change once the Kings start to become more of a team and get some strong play out of the crease (Which will happen if Erik Ersberg can keep it up once he returns from injury).

The other defenseman is...not Luke Schenn.

Don't get me wrong, I love the kid, I think a majority of his 20 minutes a game have been solid, hard-fought, and well-rounded minutes. Plus, the fact he's third in shorthanded time on ice per game has me drooling over the kid's future. However, I think his injury is going to slow his vote-garnering ability, and that his play may suffer a bit.

For this one I'm going to go with Alex Goligoski—who's having a Barret Jackman kind of year. Remember in 2002/03 when Chris Pronger only played five games for the St Louis Blues? Someone needed to fill in for him, and Jackman did a stellar job, netting a +23 and leading rookies in ice time.

Now neither Sergei Gonchar or Ryan Whitney have the all-around impact of a Chris Pronger, but the Pens entered the season missing two key offense defensemen. In their absence Goligoski has ranked second amongst rookies in power play ice time per game (4:15), first in ice time per shift (54 seconds), first amongst points by defensemen (18), earned himself a +11, and is one of two rookies with four power play goals (the leader being Oscar Moller with five).

Aside from skaters, both Steve Mason and Pekka Rinne have made cases for themselves (Mason is 9-6-1 with a 1.92 GAA and a .929 save percentage while Rinne is 7-1-0 with a 2.31 GAA and a .912 save percentage), but I think that each is going to have to play a bit more and keep it at that level to receive Calder consideration.

So with that said, the question becomes who your three candidates for the Calder would be. Mine would be Berglund, Versteeg, and Goligoski with a winner yet to be decided.

After all, it's a long season. Who knows what could happen?

Bryan Thiel is a Senior Writer and an NHL Community Leader for Bleacher Report. If you want to get in contact with Bryan you can do so through his profile, and you can also check out all of his previous work in his archives.