Award season is one full of conflicts. There will always be disagreements on who should win which awards and why. The boundary to what a person can use in an argument is practically nonexistent. Some traditionalists prefer to use goals, assists, and points to make their case, while people who rely on analytics use their percentages and graphs.
The Calder Trophy is awarded “to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the NHL.” We’ve been spoiled with top talent making appearances as finalists for the past few seasons. It wasn’t long ago when Cale Makar, Adam Fox, Dominik Kubalik, and Quinn Hughes made their cases to win this prestigious award.