NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman reveals that a “quarter pole” polling of NHL.com writers has, not surprisingly, earned Lucas Raymond a narrow win over Moritz Seider as the NHL.com pick as their Calder Trophy front-runner:
Lucas Raymond is on a rookie scoring pace unlike anything the NHL has seen the past four seasons.
The Detroit Red Wings forward has scored 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in 22 games, averaging 0.95 points per game. The last rookie to finish a season on that type of pace was New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal, who won the Calder Trophy voted as NHL rookie of the year in 2017-18 after scoring 85 points (22 goals, 63 assists) in 82 games (1.04 points per game).
Forward Kirill Kaprizov scored 51 points (27 goals, 24 assists) in 55 games with the Minnesota Wild when he won the Calder Trophy last season (0.93 points per game).
“Lucas is dangerous; he’s someone that is incredible to play with because he’s going to make plays,” Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin told The Detroit News. “He’s crafty and he’s going to get the puck to you.”
Raymond is the favorite to win the Calder Trophy according to a panel of 17 writers for NHL.com, receiving 10 first-place votes and 77 points in the poll. The 19-year-old didn’t receive a vote in NHL.com’s preseason poll in October.
Raymond’s teammate, Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, is second in the poll with six first-place votes and 71 points, followed by New Jersey Devils center Dawson Mercer with 38 points (one first-place vote), Anaheim Ducks center Trevor Zegras with 35 points and Colorado Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram with 12 points.
It’s the first time in the history of NHL.com’s Trophy Tracker series that two Red Wings players are No. 1-2 among the top five in voting for the Calder Trophy. Additionally, Detroit goalie Alex Nedeljkovic is tied for seventh with Ducks defenseman Jamie Drysdale, each with four points.
Continued; things could change, but at this point, I think Raymond’s building up some serious momentum toward a Calder Trophy win, and if he can’t do make it through a full season for some reason, Seider probably will.
