The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek filed a mailbag article this morning, and he leads things off with a question regarding the Red Wings’ dynamic rookie duo of Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider:
Regarding Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider’s strong starts in Detroit; are there comparables to having 2 players on the same team that will both most likely take top 2 of the top 5 slots in Calder? — Kyle A.
Actually, there are a number of parallels to the situation you outline, and a lot depends on how far back in time you want to go. In the NHL’s Original Six era, Dave Keon won the 1961 Calder Trophy ahead of his Maple Leafs teammate Bob Nevin. In 1950, two Bruins (Jack Gelineau and Phil Maloney) ran one-two; the year before, in 1949, it was a pair of Rangers (Pentti Lund and Allan Stanley) who managed the trick. In the modern era, as reader Andy B. pointed out, the best example came in the 2002 Calder race, when Thrashers teammates Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk finished one-two ahead of third-place finisher Kristian Huselius of the Panthers.
Others came close to duplicating that feat:
In 2007, the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin won the Calder, with teammate Jordan Staal finishing No. 3. (Paul Stastny, then with Colorado, was second).
In 2008, the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews finished first and third, with the Capitals’ Nicklas Backstrom sandwiched in between.
In 2013-14, when Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon won the award, a pair of Tampa Bay Lightning forwards, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson, finished second and third.
In 2016-17, the year Auston Matthews won, the Leafs placed three in the top six: Mitch Marner was No. 5 and William Nylander No. 6.
So, there is a lot of precedent to think that if Raymond and Seider can keep up their early-season performances, the voters would have no issue rewarding them both. I’m assuming your concern is they might split the vote. History shows that while that can often happen in the Hart Trophy race, it’s less likely to occur in Calder voting.
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