After the first half of the NHL season, it’s time to take stock of who has separated themselves from the pack for league’s top individual honors.
Like Second City Hockey’s preseason picks, there are definitely some obvious choices but a few surprises as well.
The Calder Trophy for the league’s best rookie and the Rocket Richard for the top goal scorer were both unanimous picks of Canucks winger Elias Pettersson and Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin, respectively. Pettersson leads all rookies in points (45), goals (23) and assists (22). Ovechkin’s 37 goals lead the league by seven over Sabres winger Jeff Skinner.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, who leads the league in scoring with 78 points (22 goals, 55 assists) earned three votes for the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer. Despite that, he did not receive a single vote for the Hart Trophy as MVP. Oilers center Connor McDavid, who is tied for third in scoring with Flames winger Johnny Gaudreau at 73 points (29 goals, 44 assists), took three votes.
Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury had two votes for the Vezina as the best netminder. Barry Trotz (Islanders) and Bill Peters (Flames) each had two votes for the Jack Adams as the best coach, and Flames general manager took three votes for GM of the Year.
Here are the picks from the SCH staff. Share your picks in the comments!
SCH’s midseason leaders for 2018-19 NHL Awards
| Voter | Art Ross | Calder | Hart | Norris | Selke | Rocket Richard | Vezina | Jack Adams | GM of the Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brad | Johnny Gaudreau | Elias Pettersson | Connor McDavid | Brent Burns | Ryan O’Reilly | Alex Ovechkin | Tuukka Rask | Barry Trotz | Brad Treliving |
| Brandon | Nikita Kucherov | Elias Pettersson | Connor McDavid | Mark Giordano | Mark Stone | Alex Ovechkin | John Gibson | Phil Housley | Brad Treliving |
| Dave | Nikita Kucherov | Elias Pettersson | Johnny Gaudreau | Brent Burns | Nathan MacKinnon | Alex Ovechkin | Marc-Andre Fleury | Bill Peters | Brad Treliving |
| Matt | Connor McDavid | Elias Pettersson | Connor McDavid | Kris Letang | Aleksander Barkov | Alex Ovechkin | Andrei Vasilevskiy | Barry Trotz | Kevin Cheveldayoff |
| Shalyn | Nikita Kucherov | Elias Pettersson | Jeff Skinner | Erik Karlsson | Mark Scheifele | Alex Ovechkin | Marc-Andre Fleury | Bill Peters | Kyle Dubas |