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Yakupov; Schultz Jilted in Calder Race

May 6, 2013, 4:33 PM ET [321 Comments]
Richard Cloutier
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Nail Yakupov: Lead all rookies in points and goals. He's a natch to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie, right? It became obvious by the last 10 games of the season that Yakupov is going to become a 40+ goal scorer per season in the NHL.

Or what about Justin Schultz? How many first-year NHL defensemen played top-line minutes the entire season? Schultz was tied for 12th in defensive scoring, led all rookie defensemen in scoring, and played more than 21 minutes per game.

Both guys should at least be a finalist for the Calder Trophy, right?

Guess again.

So what happened? Are Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Huberdeau and Brandon Saad really the best three candidates out there? And how did they get their names on the ballot ahead of Yakupov or Schultz? I'm also going to throw Jonas Brodin's name in here too. If you ask me, Yakupov, Schultz and Brodin were the three best rookies this year in the NHL.

The people voting on the award were the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. I'm going to stop short of accusing the group of having an "Eastern" bias. To be honest with you, I have no idea where members of the PHWA come from. I know in Edmonton, some members may include media people such as Joanne Ireland, Jim Matheson, Derek Van Diest and Rob Tychkowski. I do believe Mark Spector is quite involved with the PHWA as well. It's impossible to know how much lobbying for Yakupov or Schultz took place behind the scenes or thanks to these five reporters.

One thing I can tell you is that the Oilers can't be thrilled about this. History loves to repeat itself in the NHL.

Last season, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins lost to Gabriel Landeskog for the Calder, even though Nuge had the same points output in 20 less games. Oilers forward Jordan Eberle was nominated for a few awards and came up empty as well. Is the NHL anti-Edmonton or something?

I'm going to offer you a couple of theories on what may have occurred here. First is, Edmonton-area media didn't do enough work to promote Oiler rookies. Although, in fairness, it's hard to say just exactly how much promotion did take place. Most Edmonton-area media don't travel with the team, and don't really have much more inside information than I do. The won't like reading this, but it's the truth. Certain members of the Edmonton-area media love to rip me whenever they get a chance, for whatever reason I don't know.

There's two Oilers writers - Jonathan Willis and Tyler Dellow, might not travel with the team much either, but they're wizards with advanced statistics. I wonder what either would have to say about the Yakupov and Schultz snub.

If you look at the three people who did get nominated, Huberdeau makes sense as a nomination considering he played on a team that completely lacks talent. Perhaps a 31pts season could have been 40pts if he played on Pittsburgh instead. As for Gallagher and Saad, both had the good fortune of playing for teams that overachieved. Perhaps their nomination is more the product of positive vibes and optimism.

Whatever has occurred, the non-nominations are another huge disappointment to add to the pile for the Edmonton Oilers. On the one hand, the Oilers went from being the 29th best team to the 24th best team...an improvement of five spots. If they continue to improve at that pace, the Oilers will be back in the playoff mix in two seasons. That's more realistic than good or bad. What made the Oilers season a huge disappointment was just how obvious it became that the Oilers still have roster holes. It isn't a matter of the Oilers needing to wait for certain prospects to mature. They actually still have missing pieces, and management needs to do plenty of work to change the direction of the team.

As for Yakupov and Schultz, they both are all-star level talents who will be leaders of the Oilers and in the NHL for a long, long time. This is not the first time an Oilers player has been snubbed for an award, nor will it be the last.
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