Notable Calder Trophy Winners

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Mar 11, 2010

Notable Calder Trophy Winners

Bobby Orr

<i>During its 77-year history, the NHL's Rookie of the Year award has been like the proverbial box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get in the future. The list of winners includes many all-time greats as well as busts and obscurities. Here are 10 notables, for better or worse.</i><br><br>Credited with revolutionizing his position, Orr scored 13 goals and 41 points as a rookie. He went on to shatter the 100-point barrier with 120 in 1969-79, the first of his six successive 100-plus seasons -- unheard of for a blueliner -- and win two scoring titles, but he was also a consummate defenseman. Orr won the Norris Trophy for eight consecutive years, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979.

Barret Jackman

The first and only Calder-winner in Blues history, the defenseman -- a first-round (17th overall) pick in 1999 -- had a steady rookie season (82 games, 19 points, 23, rookie-best 190 PIM) that beat out Henrik Zetterberg of the Red Wings and Rick Nash of the Blue Jackets for the Calder. A dislocated shoulder shortened his sophomore season to 15 games and since then Jackman has been a fixture on the St. Louis blueline, but is rarely mentioned among the NHL's elite defensemen.

Evgeni Malkin

Drafted second overall in 2004 behind Alex Ovechkin, Malkin defected to the NHL from his Russian pro team in August 2006 and scored 33 goals and 85 points as a rookie, adding another potent weapon to a Penguins offense that already included Sidney Crosby. Now an alternate captain, the 23-year-old center won the Art Ross (scoring title) and Conn Smythe trophies during the Penguins' Stanley Cup campaign of 2008-09.

Alexander Ovechkin

The man who beat out Sidney Crosby for the Calder, the hard-hitting, electrifying Ovechkin scored 52 goals and 106 points to Crosby's 39 and 102. Ovechkin has gone on to win two consecutive Hart Trophies and make three All-Star Game appearances. He's on course to have his third successive 50-goal,100-point season.

Willi Plett

Sandwiched between Hall of Famers Bryan Trottier (1976) and Mike Bossy (1977) was this Paraguay-born forward who started playing hockey at age 13. Plett was drafted in the fifth round (80th overall) by Atlanta in 1975, and scored 33 goals and 56 points as a rookie, edging the Rangers' highly-touted Don Murdoch, who'd suffered a mid-season ankle injury. Plett approached or topped those totals only once before he was dealt to Minnesota in 1982. There, he was used for his size instead of his skill, filling the role of enforcer.

Martin Brodeur

One of the greatest goaltenders of all time, Brodeur won the Calder with a 27-11-8 mark and 2.40 GAA, over Jason Arnott of Edmonton. (Defenseman Chris Pronger was also part of that rookie class.) A workhorse, Brodeur has won four Vezina Trophies, three Stanley Cups and holds the NHL career records for wins, shutouts and lowest GAA.

Andrew Raycroft

Drafted in the fifth round (155th overall) by Boston in 1998, Raycroft was a surprising 29-18-9 with a 2.05 GAA as a rookie, good enough to beat out Montreal's Michael Ryder for the award. His performance was promising, but since the 2004 lockout, he's had only one winning season and has been shipped from Boston to Toronto to Colorado to Vancouver during the past four years.

Mario Lemieux

The coveted prize in the 1984 draft, Super Mario lived up to his hype by scoring 43 goals and 100 points, quickly becoming the offensive rival of Wayne Gretzky, who never won the Calder due to his 80 games in the WHA. Lemieux's Hall of Fame career was interrupted by illness and injury, but he retired in 2006 with six Ross, three Hart, two Smythe and two Stanley Cups on his mantelpiece. He also became the principal owner of the Penguins in 1999 when he bought the club in an effort to save it from bankruptcy.

Denis Potvin

Scoring 17 goals and 54 points with 175 PIM as a rookie, Potvin's offensive prowess would draw comparisons to Bobby Orr -- he scored 31 goals and 101 points in 1978-79 -- but he was also a ferocious, bone-rattling blueliner who won the Norris Trophy three times. The Hall of Famer was a mainstay of the Islanders' four consecutive Stanley Cup championship teams.

Bryan Berard

A sobering case of what-might-have-been, Berard was drafted first overall by Ottawa in 1995 and traded to the Islanders in a three-way deal that sent Wade Redden and Damian Rhodes to the Senators. Berard delivered a promising rookie season (8 goals, 48 points), but his career was later put in jeopardy in 2000 when he suffered a severe eye injury after taking a stick to the face while playing for Toronto. After surgery, he returned to the NHL in 2002 with the Rangers, but never developed into the player that he was expected to become.