It's still tight. Henrique Landeskog and Nuge will be the nominees. I think Landeskog is the front runner currently but if Nuge gets back near PPG or even ties him in points he wins.
I am impressed by how effective he already is starting this season as an 18 yr old.
He's been flourishing and you can literally see him develop his game on a week by week/month by month basis this yr... Just oozes talent.
Anything but a liability and now the pts are coming as well. Slower start than the others... but a much stronger finish than any other.. (and not talking about pts here)
Still 15ish gms to go... so we'll see which guys hit any wall..
To avoid (honestly, quite fair) accusations of homer-ism, I shall appeal to reason with the use of stats provided by behind the net...
In addition to shots, goals, dubiously recorded hits, +/-, what have you - Landeskog leads his team in Quality of competition (Henrique is 6th on the Devils, RNH is 9th on the Oilers). His relative Corsi is top 20 in the league, while his ES o-zone starts are still around 55%. He is +22 on a team where he closest teammate is +10, and the team as a whole is -3.
In making that particular case, it may seem I'm discriminating against Henrique and RNH for having better and worse situations, things that are out of their control. I don't intend that. I just want to stress how good Landeskog has been.
Is being possibly the best forward on a bubble team better than being the 4th (?) best forward on a playoff team, if those two players have otherwise similar stats? It might be a decent tiebreaker, though I don't know how fair it is.
RNH, man, I don't know, he certainly brings the razzle dazzle.
Looking at their stat lines, Landeskog should have this. If that retard Tom Renney would play Nuge on the first PP and with better linemates than Smyth and Hemsky, I'm sure he'd be higher up - but that's life I suppose. I'd rank them:
Landeskog. He plays all areas of the game so well and if he keeps up with how he's been playing the past few weeks there's no doubt in my mind he'll win the Calder this year.
To avoid (honestly, quite fair) accusations of homer-ism, I shall appeal to reason with the use of stats provided by behind the net...
In addition to shots, goals, dubiously recorded hits, +/-, what have you - Landeskog leads his team in Quality of competition (Henrique is 6th on the Devils, RNH is 9th on the Oilers). His relative Corsi is top 20 in the league, while his ES o-zone starts are still around 55%. He is +22 on a team where he closest teammate is +10, and the team as a whole is -3.
In making that particular case, it may seem I'm discriminating against Henrique and RNH for having better and worse situations, things that are out of their control. I don't intend that. I just want to stress how good Landeskog has been.
Is being possibly the best forward on a bubble team better than being the 4th (?) best forward on a playoff team, if those two players have otherwise similar stats? It might be a decent tiebreaker, though I don't know how fair it is.
RNH, man, I don't know, he certainly brings the razzle dazzle.
Landeskog has to win it. Not only does he lead rookies in points and leading his team in hits, blocked shots and shots on goal. He defines rookie of the year.
Points are not all that matter. Having him listed third is ridiculous.
This. The nuge scored a lot of points but he's not close to being as effective as Lando right now. Nuge put on a good show for a kid but Lando plays a man's game that has helped his team win hockey games.
.
