NHL Awards 2020: Leon Draisaitl wins Hart and Ted Lindsay, Cale Makar wins Calder

We may be smack in the middle of a Stanley Cup Final but the screwy COVID-influenced NHL timeline means that the league’s major award winners were announced on Monday night, shortly before the start of Game 2 between the Lightning and Stars. 

Let’s take a look at the winners:

Hart: Leon Draisaitl

Draisaitl’s gaudy offensive numbers carried him to victory in the Hart race as well, as he beat out New York’s Artemi Panarin and Colorado’s Nathan MacKInnon for the MVP award. There was some concern that Draisaitl’s Hart chances might be hurt by the fact that he often shares the ice with Connor McDavid (a former Hart winner and largely considered the best player in the world) and that he had a shaky year defensively, but ultimately the large gap in offensive production was able to offset those perceived detractors. Draisaitl is the first German player in league history to win a scoring title and MVP. 

MacKinnon, who held a 43-point advantage over the Avalanche’s next-highest scorer (Makar), finished second in the voting while Panarin finished third. 

Calder: Cale Makar

The Calder race was one of the more hotly debated and intriguing votes of this year’s awards cycle. It was essentially a two-horse race between Makar and Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks, but the Colorado Avalanche’s young defenseman ultimately won out. Makar had 50 points (12 goals, 38 assists) in 57 games and was a key facilitator in the Avs’ high-powered offense, finishing second among all Colorado skaters in points. 

The vote was predictably close but Makar held a significant edge in first-place selections, 116-53. (The only other rookie to receive a first-place vote was the Rangers’ Adam Fox.) 

Ted Lindsay: Leon Draisaitl

Draisaitl was voted most outstanding player by his peers after finishing the season leading all players in points with 110 (43 goals, 67 assists). The Oilers forward was the only player in the league to finish with 100+ points — the second 100-point campaign of his young career. 

Vezina: Connor Hellebuyck

Hellebuyck took home the award for best goaltender, beating out Boston’s Tuukka Rask and Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy for the award. It was largely considered a two-man race between Hellebuyck and Rask, and Rask held the statistical advantage in several traditional metrics, including save percentage (.929 to Hellebuyck’s .922) and goals against average (2.12 to Hellebuyck’s 2.57). 

However, Hellebuyck’s season becomes more impressive when you look at his workload (58 games played to Rask’s 41) and the fact that he played behind one of the league’s worst defenses. The Jets gave up the most High Dangers chances in the league this season.

Norris: Roman Josi

Josi beats out Washington’s John Carlson and Tampa’s Victor Hedman as the league’s best defenseman. Josi wins his first Norris in his first nomination, and he becomes the first Swiss-born player to capture a major NHL award. His biggest competition was Carlson, who led all defensemen in scoring with 75 points (15 goals, 60 assists) but Josi wasn’t far behind offensively with 65 points (16 goals, 49 assists) and is considered to be the better defensive player in his own end.