The odds will likely be against him. I think he definitely deserves to win the Calder at this point but there are a lot of things working against him in terms of voting including:
1. He plays for Calgary. I don’t mean that it’s a conspiracy against the flames. Just that it’s always harder to a flame to win these awards because sports writers don’t give the flames as much attention. Smaller market. Less media.
2. He is going up against 2 high draft pick players (Celebrini and Michkov) and a Montreal Canadiens player with tons of hype. Those are the players media like to fawn over - especially in the east.
3. Montreal sports writers have not been afraid to down-ballot other deserving players for awards to increase the chances of their guy winning the award. Could see this happening to Wolf.
4. He’s a goalie and it’s very rare for goalies to win it. He will be held to a higher standard than the others in order to win it. For Wolf to even have a chance to win the Calder, the flames have to make the playoffs. Period. That’s not the case with the other 3 top guys in the race. Their chances of winning the Calder likely has very little to do with their team’s success.
4. He’s the oldest of the rookies. This shouldn’t be a detriment to Wolf’s chances but it will be with some writers. I recall interviews with some sports media guys that got to cast a ballot in the Calder vote in the past and they would say they take age into account. Pretty sure there was some of that opinion when Panarin won the Calder trophy.
5. Wolf played NHL games last year down the stretch. Again, some will use that to discredit him as a rookie even though he fully qualifies as one this year. Sports writers that want to “their guy” to win will use any excuse to down ballot other players in contention for the award.
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