Rookie of the Year question.

[BagHead]

I saw Johan Larsson won the rookie of the year award for the SEL, but he also played 43 games the season before this year. Can any Swedish fans explain to me how that works in the SEL? What constitutes a rookie? If this question belongs somewhere else or was already asked, I apologize. I did search, but maybe not hard enough.

[Systemfel]

Players who still have their junior eligibility can win the award in their second Elitserien season. Which is completely retarded, but a typical Swedish thing to do. "Sorry, you didn't win this year, but since you're so young and we don't want to upset you, you can win it next year. Okay? Here's a cookie."

The limit is otherwise 26 years old and no more than 30 Elitserien regular season games played in total.

[Snurrfint]

Another odd thing is that some players that have eligibility does not get nominated because they are not seen as rookies despite their rookie status according to SEL. One fine example is Mikko lehtonen.
30-28-58p in 55 games did not even go to a nomination...

[Everlasting]

We have a retarded rookiesystem and every year we all laugh about and the ones in charge dont do nothing. Dont take the swedish rookie of the year seriously..

[Yabob]

Originally Posted by Snurrfint

Another odd thing is that some players that have eligibility does not get nominated because they are not seen as rookies despite their rookie status according to SEL. One fine example is Mikko lehtonen.
30-28-58p in 55 games did not even go to a nomination...

There is probably some unwritten rule that the player shouldn't have established himself in any other major league before playing in the SEL. Lehtonen had played 150 games in the AHL and 107 games in SM-Liiga before he came to Sweden.

Also, before this season I'm not sure if a non- Swedish player could be nominated to begin with.

[joe89]

Probably because they don't have a clue what 'rookie', when it comes to sports, stands for.

It doesn't make Larsson's season any worse, though. He's in fine company with Zetterberg, Nylander, Eriksson, Bäckström etc.

[zecke26]

Originally Posted by joe89

Probably because they don't have a clue what 'rookie', when it comes to sports, stands for.

It doesn't make Larsson's season any worse, though. He's in fine company with Zetterberg, Nylander, Eriksson, Bäckström etc.

yep. the award should be "best young swedish player who didn't get much headlines the year before".

[Pentothal]

I also hate the ridiculous rookie nomination process which goes on throughout the year.. You evaluate and nominate who the best rookies are after they have all played a complete season damnit!

[Franck]

It's basically a young player of the year award rather than a true rookie of the year award.