Handing out NHL awards at season's three-quarter mark
"On the Fly," theScore's NHL roundtable series, is back for an awards edition. We're handing out hardware as teams hit the stretch run.
Believe it or not, the NHL's regular season will wrap up in five-and-a-half weeks. Time flies when every team except the Avalanche and Coyotes can still make the playoffs.
Through three quarters of the season, here are our picks for the annual major awards.
Hart Trophy: Connor McDavid
Sean O'Leary: Before we dive into this, a quick reminder: the Hart Trophy is for "the player judged most valuable to his team," so save the "Who's the best player in the NHL" debates for Twitter and your local pub.
Sidney Crosby and Brent Burns are having remarkable seasons, no question, but subtract Crosby from the Penguins and there's still Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Kris Letang, etc.
Burns undoubtedly drives the bus for the Sharks, but some of his passengers aren't too shabby in their own right.
That's why McDavid's the MVP. He's carried the Oilers well into the playoff race and is 18 points clear of Leon Draisaitl for the team lead. Subtract McDavid from Edmonton, and it's a near certainty the Oilers' postseason drought continues for an 11th season.
McDavid is on pace for a league-leading 92 points, and even if he winds up losing out on the Art Ross (he currently holds a four-point gap on Patrick Kane), it shouldn't effect his case for the Hart.
Last season's shoulder injury somewhat delayed McDavid's ascent to NHL superstardom, but now he's here to stay, and he should be just the third player - joining Crosby and Wayne Gretzky - in league history to win MVP before turning 21.
Vezina Trophy: Braden Holtby
Ian McLaren: This year's top goalie award seems destined to come down to Braden Holtby vs. Devan Dubnyk.
Both players are set to challenge for the league lead in wins as members of the Washington Capitals and Minnesota Wild, respectively, and both sit near the top of the list in terms of save percentage.
At this point in the season, however, it's Holtby who's got the edge, despite trailing slightly in those categories.
What's giving the Capitals netminder a distinct advantage right now is his save percentage at five-on-five. Among the 16 goalies with at least 2,000 minutes of ice time, Holtby leads the pack, stopping 94.1 percent of shots at even strength. Dubnyk, for the record, ranks second at 93.9.
It'll be a tight race, but at the three-quarter mark, the Vezina is Holtby's to lose.
Norris Trophy: Brent Burns
Navin Vaswani: There are defensemen, and there is Brent Burns.
Not only is Burns the highest-scoring defenseman in the NHL, his remarkable 67 points in 63 games are tied for third among all players with Brad Marchand and Crosby. He's only five points back of McDavid.
His 27 goals rank 10th, and he leads the league in shots on goal. He plays just shy of 25 minutes a game in all situations. He is the undisputed leader of the San Jose Sharks, who have every intention of reaching the Stanley Cup Final again, and this time winning it.
It's possible, should Burns go on a run, that he wins the Art Ross Trophy, the Rocket Richard Trophy, the Norris Trophy, and the Hart Trophy. It's possible, should he go on a run, that Burns puts the finishing touches on one of the most dominant seasons by a defenseman in NHL history.
This year, there is no debate. If it isn't unanimous this summer, it should have been. Burns is the Norris winner.
Calder Trophy: Patrik Laine
Josh Gold-Smith: Patrik Laine and Auston Matthews have gone toe-to-toe for the top rookie honor all season, and while both players will surely be nominated, Laine deserves to win it at this point.
The Winnipeg Jets winger has a one-point edge over his Toronto Maple Leafs counterpart for the overall lead among rookies, and the race isn't as close as it might seem when you consider he's done it in seven fewer games.
Laine's also playing more, averaging 18:10 in ice time compared to Matthews' 17:48, and while Matthews plays a more demanding position, he's being outproduced.
This is by no means an indictment of the 2016 No. 1 overall pick, who's been fantastic, nor is it an indication of how the rest of their careers will play out. It's clear, though, that with about a quarter of the season left, the player selected immediately after Matthews has the inside track for this award.
Jack Adams Award: John Tortorella
Craig Hagerman: John Tortorella deserves to win his second Jack Adams Award.
After a disastrous campaign last season that saw the Blue Jackets finish second last in the Eastern Conference and 27th overall, the team has done a 180 and is currently flirting with the fourth-best record in the NHL.
Highlighted by a 16-game winning streak that came just one victory shy of tying the NHL record, the Blue Jackets have quickly become one of the most consistent clubs in the league, sitting in the top five in both goals for and goals against.
The drastic turnaround is thanks to improved performances by some of the club's top players, while some big coaching decisions by Torts appear to have paid dividends.
Earlier in the season, Tortorella put an end to the team's morning skates, feeling they did nothing to aid the club. He also did his best to part with his frequently barbaric attitude in lieu of a more calming approach, and the players appear to have responded positively for it.
The Blue Jackets are one of the many teams to fear in the Metropolitan Division, and the club has Tortorella to thank for steering the ship.
Selke Trophy: Mikko Koivu
Vaswani: The captain of the Minnesota Wild deserves some love, especially considering the dominant season his team is having.
Mikko Koivu's an elite faceoff man, and trails only Ryan Kesler - who deserves major Selke consideration, as well - for the most draws won in the defensive zone. It's no surprise, then, that Koivu starts almost two-thirds of his shifts in the defensive zone. But he's also producing, and is on pace to hit the 60-point mark for the first time since 2011.
The Wild don't play the possession game - that's not Bruce Boudreau's style - and Dubnyk's been otherwordly in goal, but Koivu's a big reason why Minny is one of the best defensive teams in the league.
(Photos courtesy: USA TODAY Sports, Getty Images, Reuters)
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