Latest news with #CalderMemorialTrophy
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The 1985-86 Calgary Flames Squad That Prevented A Gretzky Five-Peat
The 1986 post-season will go down as another unforgettable run in Calgary Flames history. For starters, it was a whirlwind of a regular season for the Flames, who went 23-12-6 after overcoming a then-franchise record eleven-game losing streak from Dec. 14, 1985 to Jan. 7 1986. Their efforts resulted in a second-place finish in the Smythe Division, second only to provincial rivals, the titanic Oilers, led by Wayne Gretzky who scored 215 points that season, the MOST by any player in a regular season in NHL history (remember this). Gary Suter won the Calder Memorial Trophy as best rookie of the season. The Flames swept the Winnipeg in the first round and then beat the Presidents' Trophy-winning Edmonton with the Hart Memorial Trophy winner Gretzky (yes, that 200+ point scoring guy) in seven games. Rookie of the year Suter had a team-high five assists. His seven points were the second-highest in the series alongside teammates Hakan Loob, Joe Mullen and Oilers' Glenn Anderson, trailing only The Great One's 13 points. This was a big moment in league history as this team, that came second to Edmonton in the Smythe Division by a mammoth 30 points, took down the big and mighty Oilers, and stopped them from potentially pulling off a historical Stanley Cup five-peat for the greatest player in hockey. Edmonton had won the Stanley Cup the two years before (1984, 1985), and would go on to win in the two years after (1987, 1988). Sadly, this is the only flex Flames fans can have over Oilers fans as Calgary has never beaten Edmonton in any playoff series since. The Flames then beat St. Louis in seven games to win the franchise's first Clarence S. Campbell Bowl as conference champions and advance to the 1986 Stanley Cup Finals. Al MacInnis and Paul Reinhart led the series with 10 and eight points respectively. The Flames became the first team from Calgary to reach the Finals since the Calgary Tigers of the WCHL in 1924. Unfortunately, after winning their first game, Calgary got topped by the Prince of Wales Conference champions Montreal Canadiens in four consecutive games to lose the series 4-1. While the Flames did not claim Lord Stanley's Cup that season, they produced a memorable season that resonates with Flames fans, and be remembered for years as the squad that denied immortality status for Gretzky. The only team in NHL history that has won the Stanley Cup five years in a row are the 1956-60 Montreal Canadiens. Fortunately, Calgary would have to wait only three more years to finally reach the mountain top in 1989. Nine of the Flames' players from the 1986 Finals' squad would go on to lift the cup. These finals were also against the Canadiens that consisted a lot of the 1986 Finals' roster, so a bit of payback was rightfully due.
Global News
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Global News
Calgary's Dustin Wolf, Montreal's Lane Hutson, San Jose's Macklin Celebrini named Calder Memorial Trophy finalists
Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf, Montreal defenceman Lane Hutson and San Jose centre Macklin Celebrini are the finalists for the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the player selected 'as the most proficient' in his first year of NHL competition. Members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association submitted ballots for the Calder Trophy at the conclusion of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists. Wolf, who had a 2.64 goals against average and three shutouts in 53 games for the Flames, paced rookie netminders with 29 wins — 14 more than the next-closest player and one shy of the franchise rookie record established by Mike Vernon in 1986-87. The Flames just missed the playoffs this season. Wolf, a seventh-round selection (214th overall) in the 2019 NHL draft, made at least 25 saves in 35 of his 53 total appearances and allowed two or fewer goals 25 times. The 24-year-old is Calgary's first Calder Trophy finalist since 2014-15, when Johnny Gaudreau ranked third in voting. Story continues below advertisement 2:11 Calgary Flames prospects Dustin Wolf and Matt Coronato set to make NHL debut Despite missing a dozen games, Celebrini recorded 25 goals and 38 assists for the Sharks. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy He ranked second in goals and assists among the NHL rookie leaders and third in points. At 18 years, 308 days on the final day of the regular season, he became the third-youngest rookie in NHL history to lead his team in scoring, behind just Sidney Crosby (18 years, 254 days in 2005-06 with Pittsburgh) and reigning Calder Trophy winner Connor Bedard (18 years, 276 days in 2023-24 with Chicago). Celebrini also established Sharks records for assists and points by a rookie. The No. 1 overall pick from the 2024 NHL draft is San Jose's first Calder Trophy finalist since 2010-11, when Logan Couture finished second in voting. View image in full screen Montreal Canadiens' Lane Hutson (48) is tripped by Buffalo Sabres' Zach Benson (9) during first period NHL hockey action in Montreal, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hutson became the fourth defenceman in the NHL's modern era (since 1943-44) to lead rookies in scoring, joining Bobby Orr (13-28—41 in 1966-67 with Boston), Brian Leetch (23-48—71 in 1988-89 with the New York Rangers) and Quinn Hughes (8-45—53 in 2019-20 with Vancouver. Story continues below advertisement Hutson's 60 assists matched Larry Murphy (1980-81 with the Los Angeles Kings) for the most by a rookie defenceman in NHL history, while his 66 points trailed only Murphy (16-60—76 in 1980-81 with Los Angeles), Leetch and Gary Suter (18-50—68 in 1985-86 with Calgary) for the most by a rookie blueliner. No rookie, regardless of position, has registered more assists for the Canadiens in a single season. The 21-year-old Hutson is Montreal's first Calder Trophy finalist since 2012-13, when current teammate Brendan Gallagher placed second in voting.
New York Times
06-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Islanders win the Lottery!
Follow live reaction to the New York Islanders winning the NHL Draft Lottery today Getty Images Getty Images From the 10th spot all the way up to No. 1! They had just a 3.5 percent chance of winning the first-place lottery! The Draft Lottery show has a window of the lottery drawing machine going during commercial break. This entire show's aim is seemingly to disprove conspiracy theories. This draft lottery style is actually quite entertaining. The Blackhawks, Penguins, Flyers and Islanders each have an 18.2 percent chance of winning the lottery. The Sharks, Kraken and Sabres have half that at 9.1 percent odds. All other teams have been ruled out. The third draw is 12. San Jose's odds have plummeted to 9 percent! The leaders are Chicago, Philly, Pittsburgh and the Islanders. Here comes the final ball! Getty Images The second ball is 11. San Jose's chances are up to 24.2 percent. Teams that started 12th-16th have all been eliminated. Calgary is no longer able to win the lottery. The first ball is 7! San Jose's chances have improved, Chicago's have worsened. The briefcase of lottery balls has been unlocked and each ball is being dramatically dropped into the drawing machine. As part of the Lottery broadcast, the NHL has just announced the three finalists for the Calder Memorial Trophy, the league's award for the best rookie of the year: Macklin Celebrini , Sharks , Sharks Lane Hutson , Canadiens , Canadiens Dustin Wolf, Flames Celebrini, of course, was the first overall draft pick last year after the Sharks won the 2024 Lottery. The Athletic Here's a reminder of each team's odds of winning the Lottery. Time to find out who gets the first overall pick in this summer's draft! Getty Images The right to draft Matthew Schaefer first overall this summer is the big prize tonight. Schaefer is a potential No. 1 defenseman in the NHL. He's a great skating blueliner who makes a lot of difficult offensive plays. He defends and competes at a high level and projects to play big all-situation minutes in the league. He has dominated at several events and in the OHL when healthy this season, but he's missed a lot of time due to mono and a broken clavicle. GO FURTHER 2025 NHL Draft ranking: Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa lead Wheeler's May top 64 list Getty Images All 16 teams that failed to qualify for the playoffs can win the NHL Draft Lottery. However, a team can improve its position by no more than 10 selections, meaning that only teams seeded No. 1 to No. 11 (the teams with the 11 worst records during the regular season) can secure the No. 1 overall pick. If the Detroit Red Wings (No. 12), Columbus Blue Jackets (No. 13), Utah Hockey Club (No. 14), Vancouver Canucks (No. 15) or Calgary Flames (No. 16) come up with the winning four-number combination, they will not pick No. 1 but will move up 10 spots — and the Sharks will 'win' the No. 1 pick. Getty Images The drawing is conducted in two phases. The first sequence of four numbered lottery balls determines the No. 1 overall pick. The second sequence determines which team picks No. 2. For each phase, there are 14 lottery balls, each numbered between 1 and 14. They are placed in a machine, and four balls are drawn. A four-digit series is matched against a 'look-up table' that lists 1,000 possible numeral combinations to determine the team that was assigned the winning combination. The odds change, and teams are eliminated, as each of the four balls is drawn. San Jose, which had the worst record in the regular season, has been assigned the most combinations (185 out of 1,000), followed by the Chicago Blackhawks (135) and Nashville Predators (115). Getty Images For the first time in the history of the NHL Draft Lottery, the drawing of the lottery balls will take place live on television. Previous broadcasts of the lottery — which began in 1995 — have revealed results that were determined before the live television show. The exception was the COVID-19-pandemic-impacted lottery in 2020, which included a live-broadcast draw of team-logo lottery balls. The usual process — conducting the actual lottery in advance, under the supervision of a lottery technician, an accounting firm and media witnesses — sometimes led to unfounded accusations of fixed results. This was especially true when draft featured so-called generational prospects, most notably in 2005 with Sidney Crosby, 2015 with Connor McDavid, and 2023 with Connor Bedard. Matters weren't helped in 2023, when ESPN accidentally tipped, before deputy commissioner Bill Daly had a chance to turn over the card, that the Columbus Blue Jackets had fallen to the No. 3 spot. Getty Images One of my favorite columns The Athletic publishes every year is Sean McIndoe's NHL Draft Lottery power rankings. He's been writing it for a decade, dating back to the Connor McDavid lottery, and it's always a ton of fun to read. He assesses which teams need to win the lottery, which teams would consider trading out of the first overall pick, and most importantly, which teams deserve to win the lottery the most. One choice bit from his column to illustrate my point: The whole idea behind the awarding top picks to teams at the lower end of the standings is to prevent hopelessness from setting in, and the thing about that is (gestures at entire modern history of the Buffalo Sabres). Follow the link below to read the column. GO FURTHER NHL Draft Lottery power rankings: Who needs it, who deserves it, who might trade it? Getty Images Boston didn't expect to be here. The Bruins still have elite players in Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak, but the rest of the roster has aged, and their depth has declined. They haven't picked this high in over a decade, and this lottery is their best shot to start rebuilding. They'll take whoever falls to them, and that player will become the centerpiece of their next core. I have a hard time seeing them go with Porter Martone given how badly they need a center in their organization, though. Getty Images Caleb Desnoyers, C, Moncton (QMJHL) Desnoyers was a top player in the Q this season. He's well-rounded, smart and consistent. Desnoyers isn't dynamic, but plays in all situations and could be a big-minutes center in the NHL.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Embers of Yesterday: A Look at the Flames' Past Five Calder Trophy Winners
As heard from earlier, the NHL has announced young California kid Dustin Wolf as one of the nominees for the Calder Memorial Trophy for Rookie of the 2024-25 season. In honor of the announcement, we'll be looking at all five previous Atlanta/Calgary Flames players who have won the newcomer of the year award: Just a bit over seven months after playing their first ever game in the National Hockey League, the Atlanta Flames drafted Eric Vail in the second round, 21st overall in the 1973 NHL Draft. He made his full-season debut in 1974-75 and led all NHL newbies in goals with 39. He also scored 13 power play points, which was fifth amongst rookies. In all that season, he scored 0.83 points per game, the second-most for freshmen that had played at least 70 games, culminating in a Calder Award for the former Sudbury Wolf. Vail would only hit his peak again in 1976-77 and 1978-79 respectfully with 71 and 83 points respectfully, the latter with a rating of +25. During the Flames' time in Atlanta, Vail scored the most goals for the franchise with 174. His 383 points trail only Tom Lysiak's 431. The most well-known Paraguayan-born hockey player, Plett was drafted in the fifth round, 80th overall in the 1975 NHL Draft. After being sent down to the Flames' affiliate, the Tulsa Oilers in 1975-76, he scored 30 goals and 50 points in 73 games, enroute to helping the Oilers win the Adams Cup as Central Hockey League (CHL) champions. He played his rookie season the following year, where he scored 33 goals and 56 points in 64 games. His goal total was the highest amongst rookies, as well as on the team. His 0.88 points per game was highest for newcomers that had played at least 60 games. That was good enough to get him declared Rookie of the Year. His best season would be one right after the Flames relocated to Calgary: 38 goals and 68 points in 1980-81. The Madison, Wisconsin-native was the first draftee of the Flames to win the Calder Trophy after the franchise moved to Calgary. After impressing the Flames with 73 points in 74 games in two seasons in college as a Badger, Calgary drafted him in round nine, 180th overall in 1984. He started the season off with a bang, scoring 11 points in 10 games and leading the league at the time with eight power play points. When the season was all said and done, he scored 18 goals and 50 assists for 68 points in 80 games enroute to winning the Calder Trophy, and receiving an invite to the All-Star Game. He would have his best performance in a Flames jersey in the 1987-88 season when he put up 70 assists and 91 points, which were all league-highs. Those numbers earned him the Norris Trophy for best defenceman. He would finally get his crowning achievement the following year, when Calgary would raise the Stanley Cup. After blazing through the NCAA with an incredible 151 points in just 72 games during his three seasons at Cornell, Calgary picked the Oshawa, Ontario-native 27th overall in the 1985 Draft. In his first full season in 1987-88, he led rookies in goals (51), assists (41) and points (92) points, being a very easy choice for the Calder Trophy. The following year, he picked up where he left off, and this time brought the Stanley Cup to Southern Alberta. With the exception of two of his eight years in Calgary, he never scored below 75 points. He was also part of the Canada squad that won the nation's first Olympic gold medal since 1952 at the 2002 Winter edition in Salt Lake City. Nieuwendyk would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011. If Dustin Wolf wants any inspiration that a final round pick can be a Calder Award winner, he can have some inspiration from Makarov…almost. You see, Makarov had a decorated resume before coming over to North America that included five senior World Championships and an Olympic silver medal while representing the Soviet Union. So, when he laced his skates for the first time for the Flames in 1989, he was 31, but still a rookie by that time's definition. As expected, Makarov dominated the competition, scoring the most assists (62) and points (86), easily winning the Calder Award. Since then, the league changed the rules that players only under the age of 26 are eligible to be called rookies and can qualify for the Calder Trophy nomination- the Makarov Rule. Makarov was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2001 and into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016.
Hamilton Spectator
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Wolf, Hutson, Celebrini named Calder Memorial Trophy finalists
CALGARY - Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf, Montreal defenceman Lane Hutson and San Jose centre Macklin Celebrini are the finalists for the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the player selected 'as the most proficient' in his first year of NHL competition. Members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association submitted ballots for the Calder Trophy at the conclusion of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists. Wolf, who had a 2.64 goals against average and three shutouts in 53 games for the Flames, paced rookie netminders with 29 wins — 14 more than the next-closest player and one shy of the franchise rookie record established by Mike Vernon in 1986-87. The Flames just missed the playoffs this season. Wolf, a seventh-round selection (214th overall) in the 2019 NHL draft, made at least 25 saves in 35 of his 53 total appearances and allowed two or fewer goals 25 times. The 24-year-old is Calgary's first Calder Trophy finalist since 2014-15, when Johnny Gaudreau ranked third in voting. Despite missing a dozen games, Celebrini recorded 25 goals and 38 assists for the Sharks. He ranked second in goals and assists among the NHL rookie leaders and third in points. At 18 years, 308 days on the final day of the regular season, he became the third-youngest rookie in NHL history to lead his team in scoring, behind just Sidney Crosby (18 years, 254 days in 2005-06 with Pittsburgh) and reigning Calder Trophy winner Connor Bedard (18 years, 276 days in 2023-24 with Chicago). Celebrini also established Sharks records for assists and points by a rookie. The No. 1 overall pick from the 2024 NHL draft is San Jose's first Calder Trophy finalist since 2010-11, when Logan Couture finished second in voting. Hutson became the fourth defenceman in the NHL's modern era (since 1943-44) to lead rookies in scoring, joining Bobby Orr (13-28—41 in 1966-67 with Boston), Brian Leetch (23-48—71 in 1988-89 with the New York Rangers) and Quinn Hughes (8-45—53 in 2019-20 with Vancouver. Hutson's 60 assists matched Larry Murphy (1980-81 with the Los Angeles Kings) for the most by a rookie defenceman in NHL history, while his 66 points trailed only Murphy (16-60—76 in 1980-81 with Los Angeles), Leetch and Gary Suter (18-50—68 in 1985-86 with Calgary) for the most by a rookie blueliner. No rookie, regardless of position, has registered more assists for the Canadiens in a single season. The 21-year-old Hutson is Montreal's first Calder Trophy finalist since 2012-13, when current teammate Brendan Gallagher placed second in voting. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.
