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The last Toronto Maple Leafs player to win a league award was Auston Matthews, who was named the Calder Trophy winner in 2017 after scoring 40 goals as a rookie after being selected first overall in the 2016 NHL Draft. Matthews could be the next Leaf to take home a league prize, as the 22-year-old was named one of the three finalists for the Lady Byng Trophy.
Matthews, Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, and St. Louis Blues center Ryan O’Reilly are the three finalists for the award “to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability….
Congrats to @AM34 on being named a Lady Byng Trophy finalist!
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) July 16, 2020
🔹 47 goals
🔹 80 points
🔹 78 takeaways
🔹 8 PIMs#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/Srp7VvBDlG
"It's a great recognition for (Auston). He certainly deserves to be in that class in the league and he could compete for many of these awards, but the Lady Byng in particular, it's a great feather in his cap." Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said on Thursday. "When you think about all the things that go into it. You look into the penalty minutes and the fact that he plays the game with such discipline and keeps himself on the ice as often as possible and available in that sense, but also it's not easy to do his job. He's obviously a major focus for the opposition and plays a lot of minutes and needs to keep his head and say cool and stay committed and focused on the task at hand."
The Leafs leading scorer ended the season one goal behind Alex Ovechkin and David Pastrnak in the race for the Rocket Richard, tied with Ovechkin for most even-strength goals (35), in the top 10 of NHL scoring with 80 points (47 goals, 33 assists) and also led the Leafs in power-play goals (12), power-play points (25), plus/minus (+19) and shots on goal (290), while accumulating only eight penalty minutes in 70 games.
MacKinnon had 93 points (5th in the NHL),12 penalty minutes in 69 games and was named a finalist for the 2019-20 Ted Lindsay Award earlier this week, while O’Reilly (last year’s Conn Smythe Trophy winner) had 61 points (12 goals, 49 assists) in 71 games and just 10 penalty minutes.
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— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) July 17, 2020
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