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Ranking each NHL award from most important to pointless

By Dave Stevenson

Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Jason Zucker of the Minnesota Wild (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

The Not Quite As Important NHL Awards

6. Calder Memorial Trophy

Each year, the Calder Trophy goes to the NHL’s most outstanding rookie. This one’s pretty straight forward. Every league has some form of this award. Overall, there isn’t much to nitpick about this award. Keep it the way it is.

7. Vezina Trophy

The Vezina Trophy goes to the best goalie in the NHL each season. Usually, the winner is pretty deserving. However, there have been some very questionable winners in the past. Goalies are hard to compare to each other. Sure, you can look at save percentage and wins, but those don’t provide proper context.

It’s still an important award that generally rewards who it should reward, but maybe someone other than the general managers who have no clue how to value goalies should be voting on the award. Either that or more advanced goaltending metrics should be a part of the public domain.

8. King Clancy Memorial Trophy

Each season, the King Clancy Memorial Trophy is awarded to the player “who exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community”.

A lot of people think this award isn’t important, but I think it’s pretty cool the NHL rewards players who make a difference in their community. It helps remind fans players are human beings just like us. And I’m all for players who are making a difference being rewarded. So while this award has nothing to do with their work on the ice, this is a pretty darn cool award.

9. Selke Trophy

As is, I like the Selke Trophy. However, much like the Norris Trophy (more on this later), winners tend to put up quite a few points. Why are points meaningful for an award that is supposed to reward defensive play? Also, why are wings often overlooked in the voting?

10. Norris Trophy

Each season, the Norris Trophy goes to the defenseman who “demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position”. Or at least it’s supposed to. The award is heavily biased towards defensemen who put up a lot of points.

Here’s where each of the previous five winners have ranked among defensemen in points.

  • 2014-15: Erik Karlsson (1st)
  • 2015-16: Drew Doughty (10th)
  • 2016-17: Brent Burns (1st)
  • 2017-18: Victor Hedman (5th)
  • 2018-19: Mark Giordano (2nd)

Outside of Doughty, there’s a pretty clear trend with recent Norris Trophy winners. You’ve got to put up points to win a Norris Trophy. Which sort of contradicts the definition of the award.

Here’s how you fix it. Scrap the Norris Trophy and create the Bobby Orr Award for offensive defensemen and the Nicklas Lidstrom Award for defensive defensemen. Either that or tell the voters to start looking at things other than points and plus-minus rating.

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