Daily Faceoff’s 2024-25 midseason NHL Awards: Leon Draisaitl’s peak

Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl (29) prepares for a face off against the Vancouver Canucks during the first period at Rogers Arena.

Credit: © Bob Frid

With every team now having played 40+ games, it’s a great time to reflect on the season so far and look at some of the incredible performances we’ve seen from players around the league. And what better way to do that than by making some picks for all the traditional NHL awards and seeing who the current frontrunners are?

Today, we’ll dive into who we at Daily Faceoff think would win the six major trophies (the Hart Trophy, Calder Trophy, Selke Trophy, Norris Trophy, Vezina Trophy and Jack Adams Award) at this point of the season as a follow-up to our first quarter award vote in November. I collected the votes of 12 of my colleagues at Daily Faceoff, from the analysts and show hosts to the news team, to get their top five picks for each one (except for the Vezina and Jack Adams, which was only three), and then the ballots were scored like they are in real life.

Hart Trophy: Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers)

Finalists: Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets), Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota Wild)
Other Votes: Nathan MacKinnon, Quinn Hughes, Jack Eichel, Nikita Kucherov, Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen, Sam Reinhart, Connor McDavid, Zach Werenski, Sidney Crosby

The Hart Trophy voting in our first quarter votes made one thing very clear: the Hart ] race is wide open, and there are plenty of candidates. Halfway through the year. this race still has yet to be resolved, and if anything it feels more wide open than last time. Thirteen players received votes, 10 received top-three votes, and five received first-place votes, so our panel isn’t quite at a consensus with this trophy.

Amidst all the chaos, Leon Draisaitl finds himself in first place, and unlike his win in 2019-20 where it was due to McDavid’s injury, this season it’s due to the fact that he’s just playing better than McDavid. Draisaitl leads the league in goals with 31, he’s second in points with 64, and on top of that his defensive game has improved by leaps and bounds to the point where he’s not only not a liability, but playing at a Selke-caliber level. He only got a second-place vote from me, but I have no quarrels with him taking our award at this point.

Hellebuyck and Kaprizov were neck and neck for the second-place finish, but the Winnipeg netminder just edged out by four points. A .928 save percentage and 34.4 goals saved above expected speak for themselves, but the fact that he’s also elevated the play of the Jets to the point that they’re contending for the Presidents’ Trophy really shows his value this season, which is why he got my first-place vote.

Kaprizov was our Hart pick in the first quarter, but he’s now missed nine straight games and slipped as a result. That said, he remains tied for 12th in scoring despite the missed time, so the case for him is very easy to make.

MacKinnon and Kucherov were the only other players to receive first-place votes by our panel, and considering that they’re both top five in points while being valuable members of their teams, it’s hard to argue against them. That’s a trend with every player who received a vote: you can’t say they don’t belong in the top five, and that’s what makes the Hart debate this season so exciting, possibly more exciting than last season’s.

Calder Trophy: Macklin Celebrini (San Jose Sharks)

Finalists: Lane Hutson (Montreal Canadiens), Dustin Wolf (Calgary Flames)
Other Votes: Matvei Michkov, Logan Stankoven, Emil Heineman, Maxim Tsyplakov, Cutter Gauthier, Maverick Lamoreaux, Zac Bolduc, Will Smith

While the Hart Trophy race is wide open, the Calder Trophy race has a clearly established top four. Out of our 12 voters, only one didn’t have Celebrini, Hutson, Wolf and Michkov in their top four, and they had Wolf in fifth. The quartet have put themselves significantly ahead of the rest of the pack with their play this season, but only one player came out as the favorite: Celebrini.

Celebrini didn’t even finish in the top three in our first-quarter vote, largely due to the injury he sustained in his NHL debut that limited his games at that point. We’ve seen enough of him at this point, and it won over a majority of our voters with eight of the 12 first-place votes. He’s only four points behind Hutson for first in rookie scoring with 31 points in 34 games and first in points-per-game with 0.91. Celebrini’s impact on the Sharks to just simply make them fun to watch can’t be understated either.

Hutson and Wolf were the two other finalists and also the only other rookies to get first place votes at one apiece. Both of these placements speak for themselves in the performance of the players. Hutson is first in rookie scoring as a defenseman with 35 points, and sixth amongst all defensemen. As he’s seen his role increase, the Canadiens have seen their play improve, and that’s not a coincidence.

Meanwhile, Wolf is not only playing like the best rookie goaltender, but like one of the better goalies in the league, as he’s tied for seventh in SV% at .916 and in ninth outright in GSAx with 13.44. It’s the biggest reason why a Flames team that seemed poised for a high draft pick is contending for the playoffs, and it earned him my first-place vote.

Michkov was a very clear fourth place, as his dip in production and occasional shenanigans with John Tortorella have soured his value ever so slightly, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get closer as the season goes along.

Selke Trophy: Sam Reinhart (Florida Panthers)

Finalists: Anthony Cirelli (Tampa Bay Lightning), Aleksander Barkov (Florida Panthers)
Other Votes: Anze Kopitar, Jordan Staal, Nico Hischier, Mark Stone, Leon Draisaitl, Jack Eichel, Sean Monahan, Rickard Rakell, Brandon Hagel, Lucas Raymond, Mitch Marner, Kirill Kaprizov, Kirill Marchenko, Sidney Crosby

The Selke Trophy has developed a reputation for, well, being a reputation award, and that was evidenced quite well in our voting. Reinhart, Cirelli, Barkov, Kopitar, Staal and Hischier were all very common picks among our voters, although no one was featured on every single ballot.

And yet it’s Reinhart that finds himself as the frontrunner yet again. He’s one of two repeat winners from our first quarter awards, and it seems like we here at Daily Faceoff are hellbent on getting a winger on the Selke this season. That said, we either thought he was the best or didn’t think about him at all, as while he had the most first place votes with five, he only had two other votes in total.

That was just enough to pull him ahead of his fellow Florida statesmen in Cirelli and Barkov. Cirelli got the most total votes for the Selke, and it’s easy to see why he did when he’s done an excellent job playing the tough minutes with the Lightning and letting the stars run loose.

Barkov received the second-most first place votes with three in an attempt to keep hold of the “best defensive forward” crown that he’s claimed since Patrice Bergeron’s retirement, but his injuries this season made him fall a bit more out of favor with some voters.

Kopitar and Hischier were the only other players to receive first place votes, as they’ve been the driving forces for two of the best defensive teams in the league this season.

Norris Trophy: Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks)

Finalists: Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche), Zach Werenski (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Other Votes: Josh Morrissey, Gustav Forsling, Mattias Ekholm, Jakob Chychrun, Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, Mikhail Sergachev, John Carlson, Shea Theodore, Vladislav Gavrikov

While it wasn’t exactly unanimous, the Norris Trophy may have been the most agreed upon award. All three of the big contenders got first-place votes, but it was Hughes who usurped the first quarter winner in Makar this time around.

Makar’s significant lead in the scoring race won voters over last time, but now that Werenski and Hughes have caught up, it was much more up in the air. Hughes has had the best defensive results this season and his impact on the Canucks was clearly felt while he was injured, a big reason why he ultimately won out, including on my own ballot.

Werenski was the player some voters were a bit more undecided on in the top three, as he received votes in all five slots, and was even left off one voter’s ballot. I actually had him fifth on my own, largely due to the fact that he currently has a negative defensive impact with a -1.1 defensive goals above replacement. The way I see it is that him joining Hughes and Makar in that upper echelon in scoring is enough to earn him a spot on my ballot, but the bad defensive game makes it hard to place him any higher than fifth because other defensemen are doing better defensively in equally tough minutes.

Vezina Trophy: Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets)

Finalists: Filip Gustavsson (Minnesota Wild), Logan Thompson (Washington Capitals)
Other Votes: Jacob Markstrom, Igor Shesterkin, Lukas Dostal, Mackenzie Blackwood, Anthony Stolarz, Dustin Wolf, Andrei Vasilevskiy

Hellebuyck was the other player to repeat their respective first quarter award win this time around, but unlike Reinhart’s Selke win, Hellebuyck won this award unanimously with first place votes from all 12 voters.

While some goalies have challenged Hellebuyck in stats like save percentage and goals saved above expected throughout the year, no one has consistently gone toe-to-toe with him, and that’s what makes him the clear-cut winner for the Vezina at this point of the season. The fact that he’s the only goalie with Hart votes, never mind a Hart finalist, plays a big role in his sweep of the votes, as he’s been such an essential part of this Jets team.

Rounding out the finalists are two other goalies who have been a big help to their teams in Filip Gustavsson and Logan Thompson. Both have been excellent bounceback stories this season, with Gustavsson nearly being dealt by the Wild last summer and Thompson actually being traded to the Capitals. And yet halfway through the season, they rank a respective sixth and fourth in save percentage (.917 and .921).

Jack Adams Award: Spencer Carbery (Washington Capitals)

Finalists: Dean Evason (Columbus Blue Jackets), Scott Arniel (Winnipeg Jets)
Other Votes: Jim Hiller, Sheldon Keefe, Craig Berube, Bruce Cassidy, Jon Cooper, John Hynes, Rod Brind’Amour

Surprise, surprise, the award best known for being given to the coach with the team that many people didn’t expect to do well, but is playing well, was given to a coach who once again fits that mold. Even with a playoff appearance last season, Carbery’s Capitals have been one of the biggest surprises of the season, especially as they are currently tied for the best record in the league. That’s earned Carbery eight of 12 first place votes, and a place on 11 of the 12 ballots – with the lone one without him being my own, but I vote much differently than the general public for the Jack Adams.

Evason and Arniel round out the finalists, and not only are their teams’ performances surprising, they’re both new coaches with said teams, so their impact feels even more apparent. Evason gets praise in particular not only for the Blue Jackets’ turnaround into a playoff contender at this point of the season, but for also navigating the team through the tragic loss they experience this summer to where they are now. Arniel goes from winning the award in the first quarter vote to third right now, but with the Jets still tied for first, it’s no surprise to find him still in the top three.

Hiller and Keefe were the only other coaches to get first-place votes, and while their teams’ success hasn’t been a surprise like some others, they are in their first seasons (first full season for Hiller) in new places, and have clearly impacted the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils thus far.

All scoring stats courtesy of the NHL.
All advanced stats courtesy of Evolving Hockey.

_____

The Sheet is live! Hosted by Jeff Marek, this brand-new show is your daily deep dive into the biggest hockey stories, trends, and insights across the NHL, PWHL, junior hockey, and beyond. Streaming every weekday at 3 PM ET on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel, The Sheet features exclusive interviews with top hockey figures, from industry executives to Olympic champions. Don’t miss out—subscribe to Daily Faceoff on YouTube and follow @TheSheetHockey on social media to stay up-to-date with all the latest from the world of hockey.