The Calder nominees come in

by James Mirtle on Apr 22, 2009 12:48 PM CDT Comment 21 comments

The first set of nominees for an NHL award are in and there's a bit of a stink being made by some fans out in Nashville:

Simply put, Pekka Rinne made a colossal difference for the Nashville Predators this season, and without his performance the Preds would have been in the race for the first overall draft pick. He should certainly have been included in the Calder Trophy finalists.

I think it's pretty clear who this year's winner is going to be, and I wouldn't be surprised if Steve Mason walks away with 90-plus per cent of the first-place votes. He came right out of junior to have a phenomenal year for a team not expected to make the playoffs, and his numbers are good enough to put him in Vezina Trophy contention.

But if you compare his numbers to those of Rinne, they're pretty close:

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Pekka Rinne	52	2999	29	15	4	8	119	2.38	1435	1316	.917	7
2008 - Steve Mason	61	3664	33	20	7	7	140	2.29	1658	1518	.916	10

Rinne has a few things working against him:

He only started 49 games, 12 fewer than Mason. That's a big difference.
He wasn't able to lift his team into the postseason.
He's not nearly as well-known as Mason, who starred in the world junior tournament recently, and plays for a team that doesn't receive a ton of publicity in every market. (Not that the Blue Jackets do.)
This was a very good year for high-level rookies.

Mason and Ryan are the clear 1-2 favourites here, and it shouldn't be discounted that Versteeg had an excellent year as a solid two-way player for one of the best teams in the NHL.

Here's how I voted:

Steve Mason, Columbus
Bobby Ryan, Anaheim
Pekka Rinne, Nashville
Kris Versteeg, Chicago
Drew Doughty, Los Angeles

The rest of the NHL award nominees will be revealed over the next two weeks:

WED, APRIL 22: Calder Trophy (top rookie)
THU, APRIL 23: Norris Trophy (top defenceman)
FRI, APRIL 24: Lady Byng Trophy (sportsmanship)
MON, APRIL 27: Vezina Trophy (top goaltender)
TUE, APRIL 28: Selke Trophy (top defensive forward)
WED, APRIL 29: Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP)
THU, APRIL 30: Masterton Trophy (perseverance)
FRI, MAY 1: Adams Award (Coach of the Year)
MON, MAY 4: NHL Foundation Award (contributions)

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Comments

CAL GOT SCREWED!

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by nathaneide on Apr 22, 2009 1:48 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Commenters are gonna flame me for this, but I’ll say it anyway. If Rinne was the good Canadian boy and Mason the quiet European, the story would be far different here.

by Costa24 on Apr 22, 2009 1:49 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree. The Canadian media were following Mason’s rise closely because of his MVP role in last year’s WJCs.

I’d have gone with Ryan, personally.

Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.

by saskhab on Apr 22, 2009 2:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

There’s nothing wrong with a Bobby Ryan selection, but for the sake of the kid’s next raise, please give the Calder to Mason.

http://www.battleofcali.com/

by Earl Sleek on Apr 22, 2009 2:19 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Okay, that makes a bit of an impact, but what of these two points:

- He only started 49 games, 12 fewer than Mason. That’s a big difference.
- He wasn’t able to lift his team into the postseason.

by James Mirtle on Apr 22, 2009 2:04 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I would also argue that it wasn’t simply the number of games that Mason played, but when he played them.

Mason was thrust into the starter’s role in early November when Leclaire started struggling with injury, whereas Rinne didn’t really take over the starting job until December. He had an awful lot of catching up to do in terms of media coverage, stats, etc.

"Without good hard work, it is impossible to reach the pinnacle of success." - Anatoli Tarasov

by PRC on Apr 22, 2009 2:36 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed...

Mason emerged as the starter for Columbus earlier (as PRC points out) and was the biggest reason why they managed to make it to the Blue Jackets’ first postseason (and convincing management to trade LeClaire). Plus, my impression is that Mason seemed to come out of nowhere, while Rinne had a bit of a prospect buzz from last season (which is why Ellis only got two years and the Predators were happy to ship Chris Mason to St. Louis). There’s been a lot of Hart talk about Mason; that probably had more to do with it than anything it.

Rinne should have been nominated over Versteeg (so should have Doughty), but saying that nobody is paying attention to Rinne because of his nationality is a bit of a simplication.

by Forsch31 on Apr 22, 2009 3:18 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

No doubt, and I’m not trying to say the award is going to the wrong guy.

Just that the stories would be different. We wouldn’t be talking about a near unanimous winner, nor would the other guy be virtually unknown to anybody outside of his team’s hometown. At this point, I think there’s plenty of evidence to suggest Rinne could be just as good or perhaps even the better of the two going forward, but few people who didn’t do their own independent research and rely on the media for guidance know that (and who could blame them, people have more important things to worry about, which is why, for better or for worse, the talking heads are relied upon to fill in that gap)

by Costa24 on Apr 22, 2009 5:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Fair point. Rinne has definitely deserved more pub this season; I was very impressed with him when I was in Nashville.

by James Mirtle on Apr 22, 2009 6:37 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

- He wasn’t able to lift his team into the postseason.

Why would/should the quality of Rinne’s teammates be considered for this reward at all? Isn’t it an individual award?

by matskralc on Apr 22, 2009 8:14 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

When comparing the two....

Is it fair to compare there relative experience and how Mason’s ascension is relatively more impressive based on his lack thereof. Mason is 6 years younger and essentially jumped straight from junior hockey to the NHL. Meanwhile, Rinne racked up nearly 150 AHL appearances and a couple brief appearances with the Preds in previous years.

Maybe it shouldn’t be relevant, but something about over-aged rookies being rewarded within the category has always irked me.

by ConfidoBoyd on Apr 22, 2009 2:23 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Wasn’t Rinne ineligible because he’s 26?

by Velvet Canuck on Apr 22, 2009 2:46 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

“The player must not be older than 26 years before September 15 of the season in which he is eligible.”

by James Mirtle on Apr 22, 2009 3:09 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Why did you put Versteeg over Doughty, James? I don’t see it.

The West Coast is the Best Coast.

by RudyKelly on Apr 22, 2009 3:31 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Doughty did have a great year, especially given his age, but he was outscored pretty badly to be a Calder nominee. He’s going to be excellent as he gets older.

Versteeg was, what, the fourth forward in terms of ice time on one of the best teams in the league? He played well on the PK and had 22 goals while playing a significant role.

They’re pretty close by my count.

by James Mirtle on Apr 22, 2009 4:34 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Here’s how I voted:

Steve Mason, Columbus

Bobby Ryan, Anaheim

Pekka Rinne, Nashville

Kris Versteeg, Chicago

Drew Doughty, Los Angeles

I assume that this is just like Miss Universe and those are the 1st through 5th runner-ups to Luke Schenn.

Pension Plan Puppets: A Toronto Maple Leafs blog and a group therapy session.

by PPP on Apr 22, 2009 3:51 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I bet Schenn makes the all-rookie team.

by James Mirtle on Apr 22, 2009 4:35 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

What the heck is “EGA”? All I can guess is empty net goals against, but that sort of seems like a silly stat to track for a goalie.

by RyanV on Apr 22, 2009 5:13 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Yes, EGA stands fir Empty Net Goals Against. I also wondered the relevance of such a stat when listed with an individual goalie’s statistic. But I’m assuming overall team GA includes every kind of goal, so when each goalie’s stats are hashed out, they’re only separated here and calculated for GAA and SV%.

However, I agree with you. I also don’t see why they’re included in the first place. They may as well just be separated in the team’s overall GA totals beforehand, so individual goalie GA already just include goals they let in while in net. I guess one can use EGA as a rudimentary way to assess how many times a team was trailing by one or two goals when that particular goalie was in net, but that’s certainly not very accurate, definitive, or even a type of connection I see many people making at first glance.

Supporter of the Sergei Berezin "Give and Go" - You give me puck, then you go to hell

by bkblades on Apr 22, 2009 5:44 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I dunno why it’s there either. SBN has these funky stats widgets we can automatically insert into posts, so whatever’s on there gets included.

It’s funny how many irrelevant stats are available in hockey.

by James Mirtle on Apr 22, 2009 6:40 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Mason was the best rookie this year, but I think Doughty will be the best of this class.

by Nut on Apr 23, 2009 12:09 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

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