Toronto Maple Leafs star forward Auston Matthews emerged as the big winner at the NHL awards ceremony: he was voted the league’s MVP by both pundits and peers.
So it was with his arms full of the Hart and Ted-Lindsay trophies that Matthews left the Tampa reception hall where the ceremony took place. He was already the winner of the Maurice-Richard trophy for his production of 60 goals in 73 games.
The highlight of the event came with the announcement that Matthews had won the vote from members of the media for the Hart Trophy ahead of three-time winner Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and goaltender Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers. of New York, already winner of the Vézina trophy as the best goaltender.
Matthews got 119 1st place votes and 49 2nd place votes, for a total of 1630 points. McDavid tallied 1,111 points with, among other things, 29 1st place votes, while Shesterkin received 738 points.
Earlier, Matthews had gone up to the stage to pick up the Ted-Lindsay from the hands of Martin Lafleur, son of Guy, who died on April 22 following a long battle with lung cancer.
His 60 goals made Matthews a pretty obvious choice. In the player ballot, he was chosen over Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators.
Matthews is only the third Maple Leafs player to win the Hart Trophy, and the first since Ted Kennedy, at the end of the 1954-55 season. Matthews also became the very first player from the Toronto team to receive the Ted-Lindsay Trophy.
The Vezina in Shesterkin
Igor Shesterkin won the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the goaltender deemed the best in his position, according to the general managers of the NHL.
Finalist for this honor for the first time, Shesterkin is the third Rangers color bearer to receive this trophy, according to the selection criteria put in place in 1981-1982, after Henrik Lundqvist, in 2011-2012, and John Vanbiesbrouck, in 1985-1986.
Shesterkin led the NHL with a 2.07 goals-against average and .935 save percentage. He helped the Rangers (52-24-6) to 110 points, the third-highest points tally in organizational history. He finished the season with a record of 36-13-4 and 6 shutouts in 52 games.
Shesterkin emerged as an almost unanimous choice, with 29 of 32 1st place votes. He placed 2nd on the other three ballots, for a total of 154 points. Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames finished 2nd in voting with 53 points, ahead of Jusse Saros (32 points) of the Nashville Predators.
Seider wins the Calder
Detroit Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider received the Calder Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s most outstanding rookie, following a vote by members of the Professional Hockey Journalists Association.
Seider is the sixth Red Wings player to receive such an honor. He largely dominated the poll with 1853 points, due in particular to his 170 1st place votes. Trevor Zegras (1,191 points) of the Anaheim Ducks and Michael Bunting (877 points) of the Toronto Maple Leafs completed the podium.
Lucas Raymond, another Red Wings player, ranked 4th, while Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield had 31 points, earning him 9th place.
Seider played in all 82 games for the Red Wings and had 50 points, including 7 goals. That point total has only been surpassed by two other rookie defensemen in the past 30 years, Quinn Hughes, with 53 points in 2019-20 with the Vancouver Canucks, and Vladimir Malakhov, with 52 points in 1992-93. with the New York Islanders.
The Norris in Makar
Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche won the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman of the past season.
Makar led the league among defensemen with 28 goals in addition to finishing 2nd in points (86) behind Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, himself a finalist, alongside Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Makar also compiled a +48 differential. He amassed 52 points at even strength on the ice and 34 on the power play, in addition to scoring 6 game-winning goals.
Second in voting last year, Makar helped lead the Avalanche (56-19-7) to the best record in the Western Conference. He is the first player in this franchise to get his hands on this award.
Finally, the NHL announced that Julien BriseBois of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chris Drury of the New York Rangers and Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche were the finalists for the Jim Gregory Trophy, presented to the general manager of the year in the NHL.
BriseBois is a finalist for the second time, having finished 2nd in the 2019-2020 season. Drury, appointed Rangers general manager in May 2021, will obviously be a finalist for the first time, as will Sakic.
The winner will be announced at the NHL Draft on July 7 and 8 in Montreal.
Radio Canada
Source: Radio-Canada
