Calder Trophy voters, take note: Matias Maccelli belongs on your ballots

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Calder Trophy voters, take note: Matias Maccelli belongs on your ballots
Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

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“Who is that little No. 63?”

Unheralded and undersized rookie Matias Maccelli stole the show once again on Monday evening as the Arizona Coyotes played host to Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers at Mullett Arena.

No doubt, the travelling blue-and-orange faithful in Tempe expected McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the like to dictate the play. To an extent, they did. Although McDavid had a quiet night, Draisaitl netted his 300th NHL goal and set up the game-winner in the third period. In the end, the Oilers came away with two big points.

It’d be difficult for any first-year player to live up to that standard. On Monday, Maccelli exceeded it. The 22-year-old winger uncharacteristically scored two goals of his own and tied for the Arizona team lead with five shots on net.

Almost every time he touched the puck, he made something happen.

Those five shots on goal represent nearly 10 percent of Maccelli’s season total (53 in 57 games). The two goals finally got him into the double digits. He’s as purebred a playmaker as they come.

Maccelli ranks first among all Calder Trophy-eligible players with 33 assists. Only Seattle Kraken center Matty Beniers ranks ahead of him on the rookie point-scoring leaderboard.

But here’s the thing: Maccelli missed 18 games due to an injury earlier this season. While Beniers has 50 points in 71 games, good for a 0.70 points-per-game pace, Maccelli has 43 in 57 — enough to put him in the rookie scoring lead on a per-game basis.

Looking at Natural Stat Trick’s per-60 stats, Maccelli and Beniers are virtually neck-and-neck. On average, they’ve both scored 2.2 points per hour at 5-on-5 this season. Where Maccelli has a wide edge is on the power play, where he’s generating 6.6 points per 60 — nearly double Beniers’ rate.

Generally speaking, it’s easier to be a 22-year-old winger in the NHL than it is to be a 20-year-old center. Beniers will almost certainly win the Calder Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s top rookie, in a landslide vote this spring. He’s earned it with his play.

But the story doesn’t end there. The Calder winner is determined collectively by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, with each voter listing five players on their ballot. Beniers will take the top spot on many of them, but places No. 2–5 are very much up for grabs.

Maccelli deserves to be a finalist. He’s the best passer in this year’s rookie class (and it’s not particularly close). He exhibits incredible poise with the puck on his stick. Through 57 games this season, he’s racked up assists at a greater rate than Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and nearly everybody else in the league.

Here is the full list of players (min. 25 GP) with more assists per hour in all situations than Maccelli this season: Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl, Matthew Tkachuk, Mitch Marner, Kevin Fiala, Artemi Panarin, Elias Pettersson, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

That’s it.

This year’s Calder Trophy race almost harkens back to the year 2015, when two similar young star forwards were going head-to-head in a competitive field.

Johnny Gaudreau, Mark Stone, and Aaron Ekblad ended up being the finalists that season. This year, the trio might end up being Maccelli, Beniers, and one of Owen Power and Jake Sanderson. A defenseman probably won’t win this time around like Ekblad did eight years ago, but the point remains the same.

Beniers plays a very mature game. He’s tremendously skilled, but he’s even more responsible. For somebody who was selected No. 2 overall less than two years ago, Beniers is more than living up to his pedigree. He’ll be a quality NHL player for a long time.

Maccelli graduated from the same USHL program as Gaudreau. Both of them scored 72 points in their draft years with the Dubuque Fighting Saints. Both were selected in the fourth round. Gaudreau ultimately finished third in the 2015 Calder race. Maccelli might wind up in the same spot this year.

It’s more than a little premature to equate Beniers with Stone and Maccelli with Gaudreau. Comparables aside, you can’t go wrong with either player. What might end up sealing the deal in favor of Beniers is that his team will almost certainly make the playoffs; meanwhile, the Coyotes are in the basement by design.

Depending on which team you follow, there are between seven and 10 games remaining in the 2022–23 regular season. The Kraken have played 73 games, two fewer than the Coyotes’ 75.

Beniers has a little bit more time to pull away, but recent trends suggest the opposite is just as likely to occur. Maccelli leads all rookies with 21 points in 25 games since Feb. 1. Beniers has just three goals and 14 points in 24 games since that date.

Indeed, Beniers is part of a five-way tie for second place behind Maccelli, but he has the fewest goals of the group over that span. He’s been held without a goal in 14 of his last 15 contests.

Maccelli and Beniers have never played against each other in the NHL. In fact, the Coyotes and Kraken have yet to square off even once this season. That will soon change in a big way.

Arizona will play three of its final five games of the season against Seattle. Maccelli and Beniers are slated to hit the ice at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on April 3 and 6 before meeting again one final time at Mullett Arena on April 10.

Count ’em: that’s three head-to-head matchups between two of the top Calder Trophy candidates in the final two weeks of the regular season. How’s that for a little drama?

It’s easy to overlook hockey players in the desert. The accomplishments of the Coyotes’ top players are all-too-often overshadowed by off-ice news stories and speculation about the team’s future. It’s the nature of the beast.

Well, on the ice, Maccelli has become the real beast. He may not win the Calder, but he offers a glimmer of hope as the Coyotes look to finally build a contending team in the Valley of the Sun.

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