What are the Chances of a Leafs Rookie Winning the Calder this Season?

Our guest writer, the Gome, takes a look at what could by the best chance for a Leafs rookie to win the Calder Memorial trophy for the first time, since Brit Selby 50 years ago.

If you were to ask any ardent Toronto Maple Leafs fan what Syl Apps, Frank Mahovlich and Dave Keon all have in common, you would probably receive an answer along the lines of “they were all great Leaf players of yesteryear”, or at least something to that effect.

Offer the names Howie Meeker or Kent Douglas to see if any lights come on and the result is likely to be, at best, a vacant stare. Those two are not, after all, mentioned nearly as often in Leaf lore as Apps, Mahovlich and Keon.

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It would not be until you offered the name Brit Selby as a hint, that you would likely garner any kind of acknowledging response, and that would only be from the older guys in the room.

Though the Leafs have had the Calder Memorial Trophy for the league’s most outstanding rookie awarded to one of their own more times than any other team in the league (nine), it has been 50 years since Selby won it as a Leaf.

That could all change this upcoming season.

In any given year in the NHL, there will be a handful of players considered for the eventual limit of three nominations for the Calder Memorial Trophy award. Make no mistake, there are a number of potentially worthy candidates skating for other franchises, but can anybody in Leafdom remember a time when the Leafs were heading into a season with three young players that could potentially dominate the Calder conversation?

I sure can’t, but what I try to keep in mind is how many unforeseen pitfalls, injuries, or just plain bad luck can befall a young player heading into their first NHL season. An individual player award such as the Calder Memorial Trophy is not a championship.

It doesn’t even really mean a lot in the grand scheme of things associated with team-wide success, but it sure is nice, just like winning the first overall draft pick. It represents that little tidbit of good news, fed so excruciatingly infrequently to a fan base starving for anything positive.

It also bodes well for the future of the team. Just as a first overall draft pick indicates a very high probability of acquiring a player that will make an impact at the NHL level, the Calder Memorial Trophy rewards a young player for doing just that.

Jun 24, 2015; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Aaron Ekblad talks to media after winning the Calder Memorial Trophy during the 2015 NHL Awards at MGM Grand. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports /

I also try not to forget that before the season even begins, the Calder conversation quite often does not resemble the Calder conversation of late March. Things change, good and bad things happen to these young players, but upon reflection, that only makes me smile.

Many a dark horse has come out of nowhere to claim the rookie award over the years. How many dark horses do the leafs have to bolster the odds of one of their players receiving this award?

William Nylander, Auston Mathews and Mitch Marner are the three obvious candidates, but what about Connor Brown? Or how about a player that seizes their shot at the bigs and plays like they have a fire lit under them their first year?

This latter description could be speaking of a number of players now on the cusp of an NHL job with the Leafs. How about Josh Leivo or Zach Hyman? Or maybe even an unforeseen training camp surprise?

To avoid becoming too optimistic — a sentiment which I have learned from decades of being a Leaf fan that can be detrimental to a person’s sanity — it is important to consider the competition from other rookies likely to earn full-time NHL roster spots on other teams. That list should surely include, but is by no means limited to, the following names:

Patrik Laine – 2nd Overall, 2016 – Winnipeg Jets
Dylan Strome – 3rd Overall, 2015 – Arizona Coyotes
Ivan Provorov – 7th Overall, 2015 – Philadelphia Flyers
Zach Werenski – 8th Overall, 2015 – Columbus Blue Jackets
Kyle Connor – 17th Overall, 2015 – Winnipeg Jets
Christian Dvorak – 58th Overall, 2014 – Arizona Coyotes
Jimmy Vesey – UFA – New York Rangers

While it must be acknowledged this list is at best, preliminary, virtually guaranteed to be incomplete and doesn’t begin to address any of the dark horses from other organizations that could potentially emerge to join the Calder conversation, I like our chances. Not to take anything away from any of these young players beginning their NHL careers, it is more a case of I feel that our guys (the Leafs’ prospect pool) stack up well against any prospect group in the league.

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The only problem I have is determining which of the emerging young Leafs will garner one of the three nominations for this award. Where nothing in the eligibility rules for this award mentions that any given team can only have one candidate, I cannot remember the three Calder finalists ever having more than one nominee from the same team.

Can you imagine if the three Calder finalists contained more than one Leaf rookie? For me it would not simply be the euphoria of receiving a double dose of positive news, it would also mean that at least two of the Leaf’s emerging prospects had stellar seasons….what if all three names?….oh boy, I had better stop myself here.

As a direct result of remaining a loyal Leaf fan for so many decades, I have to sign off here because the voices in my head have begun arguing with each other again.

Next: Leafs rookie tournament preview

Do you agree with the Gome? Do you think this represents one of the Leafs’ best chance to have one of their players win the Calder Memorial Trophy for the first time in 50 years? Let us know in the comments section below.

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