It’s my Parting Shot for The Fearless Predictor’s picks for the major N-H-L individual awards…..
If I had a vote – but I don’t – here’s who I would cast my ballot for…
Jack Adams Award for Coach-of-the-Year – to me, this honour goes to the bench boss that guides his squad to the biggest points improvement for one season to the next. That would be Rick Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks!
Next is the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for Most Gentlemanly Player – besides hardly taking penalties, the winner should also be close to a point per game and play nearly a full season. My choice is Kyle Connor with the Winnipeg Jets – only six penalty minutes and 55 points in 61 games!
The Selke Trophy for Top Defensive Forward – the winner should have good offensive numbers to go along with a top-notch plus-minue figure. My choice is Zach Hyman from the Edmonton Oilers with 73 points and a plus-35!
The Calder Memorial Trophy for Rookie-of-the-Year – I’ll admit to being biased here, based on having a large number of games seeing him play in person, but I’m going with Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks. He has 59 points in 63 games and is only 18 years old!
The James Norris Memorial Trophy for Top Defenceman – Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks! Not only does he lead all N-H-L blueliners in points, but he has a plus-39 rating!
The Vezina Trophy for Goaltender-of-the-Year – The winner should have a combination of high save percentage, low goals against-average and high number of wins. The best combo I see is Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets. A .920 save percentage, a 2.41 goals against and 34 wins! No-one quite matches up to that!!
Lastly, the Hart Trophy as M-V-P – This winner should have a great season and be on a top two or three regular-season team! My pick would be Artemi Panarin, the best player on the best team – the New York Rangers! Forty-six goals amongst 115 points is just slightly ahead of David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins!
Those are my picks, who you got? We’ll find out the winners in late June!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!…..
