Some things of note:
I omitted Dostal. I don’t think he will have enough games by the end of the year to realistically have a chance.
Carlsson is scoring at the exact same rate as Bedard, but at a much higher shooting percentage. Unfortunately I do believe that come year end, games played will play a factor in the vote though.
Mintyukov is leading the points race, which is probably the most shocking part. If he can keep this up, this will keep him in the conversation. I think the odds are very stacked against him though. As a defenseman, most of your performance won’t show up on a stat sheet, and no one is tuning in to watch Ducks games. The difference between he and Seider when it comes to votes is that people will tune in to original six games. No one is tuning in to a 10:00pm EST Ducks game.
Safe to say it’s been a very surprising and welcome start to the season!
by BroLil
9 Comments
I can’t edit because the Reddit app sucks, but to add to Minty’s profile, he also leads in +/- by a landslide, and has yet to take a penalty.
Love to see it but the league will do everything in their power to make sure Bedard gets it, as long as he plays the full year bar injury
>Carlsson is scoring at the exact same rate as Bedard, but at a much higher shooting percentage.
Obviously this is early days here. But Bedard is going to pull ahead as Leo isn’t going to maintain 20%+ S%.
I think the case is way better for minty than leo. Doing what he is doing from the blueline at 19 is pretty impressive.
I’m just going to say it because it needs to be said: Mintyukov is the best defenseman of all time.
Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. I just can’t believe how good that kid is. I’m unreasonably excited for his Ducks career.
If the Calder voting were completely objective and were done right now, Mintyukov would win handily. Unfortunately, it’s not, but let’s hope he can keep it up. When he inevitably loses the Calder to the anointed Bedard, let’s just smirk like we know something the rest of the NHL doesn’t rather than acting like entitled whiners as Detroit fans did every time someone dared put Zegras over Seider in any sort of rookie ranking.
What I’m impressed with is how Mintyukov is getting his points – from across the blue line! He’s not a rover, like Burns or Karlsson, who routinely abandon the point. Mintyukov just dances across the blue line to make his plays. Yes, he’ll pinch at times, but he doesn’t linger – just darts in and out. This is the way.
Glad we have three potential Calder candidates on our squad.
Ridly Greig in Ottawa is also tearing it up. 7 pts in 8 games.
[Top 10 rookies on NHL.com](https://i.imgur.com/uZjYacf.png)
If Minty keeps his points up and keeps playing big minutes in all situations he will at least get a nomination. Whether he wins in that scenario depends if someone like Bedard or Cooley puts up huge numbers that can’t be denied. But through the first ten games, Minty is an easy top 3 rookie so far and arguably the best in the league.
No chance the NHL won’t give the Calder to Bedard. It’ll have to be an undeniable season by someone else (see Ovi over Sid) for Bedard to lose it
Bedard is the NHLs next cashcow. Way she goes
It’s a little weird that Bedard has 4 G 2 A in 9 games, but he’s a -5!