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Makar wins Calder Trophy; No Hart, Lindsay for MacKinnon

September 21, 2020, 8:48 PM ET [7 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Cale Makar was announced as the Calder Trophy winner on Monday as the NHL’s rookie of the year, but Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl beat out Nathan MacKinnon for the Hart Trophy as league MVP and the Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player.

Makar was named to the all-rookie team (obviously) and MacKinnon made the second team All-Star team.

Wayne Gretzky announced Makar as the winner during the NHL’s 30-minute show broadcast on NBC Sports in the U.S. and Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada.

“I’m extremely humbled and honored to win this trophy,” Makar said on a Zoom call with the Great One.



Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes and Chicago’s Dominik Kubalik finished second and third in voting by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

“(Hughes and Dominik) had outstanding seasons and they’re both very entertaining players to watch,” Makar said. “I can’t give enough thanks to each and every one of my Avalanche teammates. I owe them a ton of credit for my success this season, and it was a pleasure to compete with those guys.”

Makar also thanked the coaches, training staff, administration and Avalanche fans.

“And lastly, to a lifelong family friend, Bill Hay, who won the Calder in 1960 with Chicago. I’m happy to join the club,” Makar said.

Makar said he’s looking forward to next season (whenever that will be) after the Avalanche lost in Game 7 in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second year in a row.

“It’s going to be exciting,” he said. “It’s fun times in Colorado and we definitely have a group that we feel can make a run, so I know everybody on the team is really excited.”

Makar received 1,538 points in the voting, with 116 first-place votes. Hughes was second (1,337 points) and Kubalik third (554 points).

How the voting went (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th):

1. Cale Makar, D, COL 1,538 (116-54-0-0-0)
2. Quinn Hughes, D, VAN 1,337 (53-111-6-0-0)
3. Dominik Kubalik, F, CHI 554 (0-2-75-48-21)
4. Adam Fox, D, NYR 430 (1-1-45-52-32)
5. Elvis Merzlikins, G, CBJ 215 (0-1-17-32-27)
6. Mackenzie Blackwood, G, NJD 164 (0-1-16-15-32)
7. Victor Olofsson, F, BUF 96 (0-0-5-14-29)
8. John Marino, D, PIT 53 (0-0-4-5-18)
9. Nick Suzuki, F, MTL 17 (0-0-1-2-6)
10. Ethan Bear, D, EDM 9 (0-0-1-1-1)
11. Denis Gurianov, D, DAL 4 (0-0-0-1-1)
12. Ilya Samsonov, G, WSH 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
13. Matt Roy, D, LAK 1 (0-0-0-0-1)


Makar finished second to MacKinnon in scoring on the Avalanche with 50 points (12 goals, 38 assists) in 57 games. No stranger to awards, Makar won the Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA Player of the Year in 2018-19 while a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Makar is the first defenseman in Avalanche/Nordiques history to win the Calder Trophy. He is the sixth player in franchise history to win the award and the fourth since the team relocated to Denver, joining Chris Drury (1998-99), Gabriel Landeskog (2011-12) and MacKinnon (2013-14). Peter Stastny (1980-81) and Peter Forsberg (1994-95) won the award when the franchise was in Quebec.



Makar’s 0.88 points-per-game average led all rookies and tied for the third-highest total by a rookie defenseman in NHL history. The New York Rangers’ Brian Leetch averaged 1.04 points in 1988-89, and Los Angeles’ Larry Murphy 0.95 points in 1980-81.



MacKinnon, who earlier this postseason won the Lady Byng Award, finished second in Hart Trophy voting for the second time in three years.

Here’s how the voting went (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th):

1. Leon Draisaitl, EDM 1,309 (91-31-26-16-4)
2. Nathan MacKinnon, COL 1,162 (48-66-34-15-5)
3. Artemi Panarin, NYR 889 (24-41-54-25-17)
4. David Pastrnak, BOS 369 (3-12-15-43-51)
5. Connor McDavid, EDM 309 (1-7-24-33-31)
6. Connor Hellebuyck, WPG 283 (3-13-15-22-21)
7. Roman Josi, NSH 29 (0-0-1-6-6)
8. Jack Eichel, BUF 14 (0-0-0-2-8)
9. Brad Marchand, BOS 12 (0-0-0-3-3)
10. Evgeni Malkin, PIT 8 (0-0-0-1-5)
Auston Matthews, TOR 8 (0-0-0-1-5)
12. John Carlson, WSH 7 (0-0-1-0-2)
13. Nikita Kucherov, TBL 6 (0-0-0-1-3)
Alex Ovechkin, WSH 6 (0-0-0-1-3)
15. Jacob Markstrom, VAN 3 (0-0-0-1-0)
16. Elias Pettersson, VAN 3 (0-0-0-0-3)
17. Tristan Jarry, PIT 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Patrick Kane, CHI 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
J.T. Miller, VAN 1 (0-0-0-0-1)


MacKinnon finished fifth in NHL scoring with 93 points (35 goals, 58 assists) in 69 games.

MacKinnon ranked sixth in the league in assists and ninth in goals. He is the first Avalanche player to post three consecutive seasons of 90 or more points since the team relocated to Denver. He joined Sakic as the only Colorado players to have three consecutive 30-goal seasons, and he joined Sakic and Forsberg as the only Colorado players with three straight 50-assist seasons.

Nashville’s Roman Josi won the Norris Trophy as best defenseman and Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck won the Vezina Trophy as best goalie.



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