It was no surprise that Connor Bedard was named rookie of the year on Thursday at the NHL’s annual awards ceremony.
He is the 10th Chicago player to win the Calder Trophy and the first since Artemi Panarin in 2015-16.
The Blackhawks center led NHL rookies in goals (22), assists (39) and points (61) despite missing 14 games due to injuries in his first NHL season .
The first overall pick in the 2023 draft is the second-youngest rookie in history to lead those categories after MacKinnon in 2013-14.
Defensemen Brock Faber (Wild) and Luke Hughes (Devils) were the other finalists.
Hellebuyck adds a second Vézina to its collection
Connor Hellebuyck was named league MVP for the second time.
The Winnipeg Jets goalie won the award in 2020 and has been nominated four times in his career. He also won the Jennings Trophy, awarded annually to the goaltender with at least 25 appearances for the team that allowed the fewest goals in the regular season.
Hellebuyck went 37-19-4 with a 2.39 goals-against average, a .921 save percentage and five shutouts.
Freshly crowned Stanley Cup champion with the Florida Panthers, Sergei Bobrovsky was also nominated alongside Thatcher Demko of the Canucks.
A first Norris for Quinn Hughes and the Canucks
An exceptional year from Quinn Hughes earned him the Norris Trophy for the first time in his career and he became the first defenseman in Canucks history to win the title.
Hughes received his first nomination after leading league defensemen with a career-high 92 points (17 goals, 75 assists) in 82 games.
In his first year as captain of the Vancouver team, he also collected the most points on a power play (54), the second most points on the power play (38) in addition to finishing in fourth place for the differential (plus-38) to its position.
Hughes was chosen over Roman Josi (Predators) and Cale Makar (Avalanche), who have already won the Norris once each. Makar was a finalist for the fourth year in a row.
