Halfway Point Award Winners

[FireGilbert]

The season is pretty much half over. Who are the leading contenders for the NHL awards?

As of right now, Kucherov wins the Art Ross and Ovechkin wins the Richard. For the other awards my nominees (with the winners in bold) are as follows:

Hart:
Kucherov
MacKinnon
Tavares

Norris:
Doughty
Klingberg
Pietrangelo

Calder:
Barzal
Boeser
Keller

Vezina:
Crawford
Quick
Vasilevskiy

Selke:
Bergeron
Kopitar
Schwartz

Adams:
Cooper
Gallant
Hynes

Also a few Flames awards:

MVP: Gaudreau
Most surprising player: Jankowski
Most disappointing player: Lazar

[Machiavelli]

I'd swap Klingberg out for Hedman. Subban would be another to consider

Lazar hasn't disappointed me because I expected little from him. Brodie gets that "award"

[IgiTang]

The panel for HNIC made a pretty good argument for McKinnon getting the Hart trophy if the Av’s were to make the playoffs, and I sadly have to agree that he has no one to play with pretty much and has taken over since Duchene departed.

Halfway through the season and the Av’s were holding a wildcard spot yesterday?... And that’s pretty much McKinnon grabbing that team and dragging them along it seems.. He should at least me in the top 3 at this point IMO.

Edit: with Pietrangelo struggling with injuries, Hedman has slid into the top 3.

Edit 2: With Hedman in the top 3, a goalie playing. Vezina nom worthy hockey, Stamkos on your wing, Kucherov drops behind McKinnon if Av’s make the dance

[dieHARDflameZ]

Hart: Johnny Gaudreau
Norris: Mark Giordano
Calder: Mark Jankowski
Vezina: Mike Smith
Selke: Mikael Backlund
Jack Adams: Glen Gulutzan
Biggest Disappointment: Edmonton Oilers

Hey Mark Spector, am I doing this right?

[Poe969]

Wrong.

Hart:
McDavid

Norris:
Russell

Calder:
Yamamoto

Vezina:
Talbot

Selke:
McDavid

Adams:
Tmac

[Karl]

Hart:
Kucherov

Norris:
Josi

Calder:
Boeser

Vezina:
Vasilevskiy

Selke:
Bergeron

Adams:
Gallant

Flames:

MVP: Gaudreau

Most surprising player: Hathaway. He's here to stay and never thought he'd ever be more than a 4th liner but here we are.

Most disappointing player: Brodie.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Most surprising for me would be Ferland

[FireGilbert]

Haha nice to see this thread is also being used to rip on the Oilers. E=NG.

A couple other comments:

I really wanted to add Hedman to the Norris list but just couldn't find room. Maybe it is Western bias but Doughty has been the best D man so far, Pietrangelo is not far behind, and Klingberg is running away with the scoring lead while also playing well defensively. With Pietrangelo having injury problems though Hedman is a good bet to make the list by the end of the season.

I also had a tough time deciding between Kucherov and MacKinnon. In the end I couldn't ignore Kucherov having a solid lead in points while also being one back of the lead in goals despite having better line mates. If the Avs can somehow make the playoffs and the scoring race ends up tight then MacKinnon should be the favourite.

Oh, and I thought about Brodie for most disappointing Flame however, despite struggling defensively at times, he is still a contributing player being 2nd on the team defence in points and ice time. Maybe my expectations were too high for Lazar but I thought he would be a 10g 20p bottom six forward instead of a 0g fringe NHLer.

[Monahan For Mayor]

I agree with OP on everything but Hart. Mack is far and away hart winner right now imo.

[BlackWallStreet]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

Most surprising for me would be Ferland

He sure has been sexy this year ...

[Patek23]

Gallant has to be an absolute lock for the Adams this year. Any writers who give a first place vote to anyone else should have their right to vote rescinded.

[codynw]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

Most surprising for me would be Ferland

Why is that surprising? He's playing exactly how he was after being moved to the top line last season.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by codynw

Why is that surprising? He's playing exactly how he was after being moved to the top line last season.

Ferland is tied for 7th highest goal scoring RWer in the NHL halfway through the season.

You projected that happening? Not surprised?

If so, good for you.

[Yrebmi]

Originally Posted by timbit

Ferland is tied for 7th highest goal scoring RWer in the NHL halfway through the season.

You projected that happening? Not surprised?

If so, good for you.

Yes he is doing better than expected. Still it feels more like last year's surprise.
This year I am going to say Kulak, although I am still hoping to be happily surprised by Andrew Magiapane, and/or Marek Hrivik.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by timbit

Ferland is tied for 7th highest goal scoring RWer in the NHL halfway through the season.

You projected that happening? Not surprised?

If so, good for you.

And...in the past he had a hard time sustaining his strong play.
He is making more skilled plays this year than last.
I realize that some folks thought he could score 30 goals. I didn't.

[bubbsy]

my biggest flames surprise has been Hathaway. Loved him as a 4th liner, and am still in shock in how well he's looked & done on that dominant 3rd line.

Shout out to Bennett in turning his season around. He didn't score anything with that fugly start of 15 games. Since then, he's had 16pts in 26 games. That's a 0.62 point/game average, and works out to a 50 point season prorated over 82 games. Ignoring the points, he continues to be relentless on the puck, one of the few flames forwards that almost always finishes their check, and has shown that he isn't scared to rough it up with the best of em.

[EVERLAST]

Really happy to see and be able to say our callups have performed incredibly.

Mangiapane is wow....this kid is so smart....him kicking the puck as a pass when he was pretty tied up was really smart and he is so good defensively.
Hathaway read the message loud and clear and since being back has been impressive.
Jankowski.... WOW...... Rittich solid and no worries with him as he just needs to split the duties so Smith doesn't have to be superhuman.
Honerable mentions to Bennett who has turned it around and I see that largely as a result of Jankowski and Hathaway and I'm sure Jagr helped as well.

I'm gonna get torched but Glen snapping had to happen. He's not what I wanted as a coach but he needs to snap that boot off in some hineys more.
If the players don't get it that he wants more consistent performance , better execution of everything then they shouldn't be here or playing.
Sadly Gio saying what he said about the effort being there but the execution lacking doesn't wash with me.

The buy in needs to be there even if you don't like the message as a leader. I love Gio....he's been my favorite for a long long time and he's a great captain so I'm not throwing him under the bus.
Stajan and Brouwer need to start sitting and we need either Glass , Lomberg up in their spots.
I don't care about Brouwers contract situation and you have to play him favor him whatever.....he's a liability and Stajan just isn't able to keep up anytime.
We seem to be heading in the right direction but I'm unhappy with the place we've put ourselves having to win at the clip we do just to squeek in to the playoffs.

[PlayfulGenius]

Hart: MacKinnon

Norris: Pietrangelo

Calder: Boeser

Vezina: Vasilevskiy

Selke: Kopitar


Adams: Gallant


Flames MVP: Gaudreau
Flames Most surprising player: Ferland
Flames Most disappointing player: Brodie

[Meers]

I agree that Gallant owns the Adams.

Charlie McAvoy deserves some Calder consideration, but Boeser has a lock on it as of today.

[Tinordi]

Hart: Kucherov

Norris: Doughty

Vezina: Vasilevsky

Calder: Boeser

Selke: Bergeron