Avalanche Journal: Sizing up Colorado’s competition for end-of-season awards

The NHL’s award for general manager of the year is really given to the GM of the moment.

Trying to parse whether the award should go to the GM who did the most in the past year to improve his team, or if it should just honor someone who built a Stanley Cup contender over several years, has always been fuzzy. There are three finalists every year, and it’s almost always three GMs who are in the conference finals.

That said, there are two obvious candidates this season. Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland and Capitals GM Chris Patrick have both done extraordinary work to revamp their rosters since the end of last season. Patrick and the Capitals had a fantastic offseason, adding goalie Logan Thompson, center Pierre-Luc Dubois and defenseman Jakob Chychrun in trades.

Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael have been breakout/development success stories. Dubois revived his career. The Caps could win the Presidents’ Trophy despite two players from the 2018 championship team, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie, playing zero games.

MacFarland’s in-season roster renovation has been historic in both size and impact. The Avs traded both of their opening-night goaltenders within 10 days before Christmas and have gone from dead last in save percentage to fourth since Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood arrived.

Three of the four centers behind Nathan MacKinnon are new. The Avs traded one of the 15 best players in the NHL — something a Cup contender never does during a season — and Colorado is a significantly better team since the deal.

It shouldn’t matter what happens in the postseason. Patrick and MacFarland should finish 1-2 in GM of the year and everyone else should be fighting for third place.

What about some other major awards? Here are a few where the Avs should have a candidate, and maybe even the winner:

Hart Trophy

Nathan MacKinnon, Avalanche: He’s led the NHL in scoring for most of the past four months. His work earlier in the season, to keep the club afloat when the Avs were short three top-six forwards, was incredible. Colorado traded one of the five best wings in the league away, and MacKinnon continued to dominate. Winning this award in back-to-back years has been extremely hard to do over the past 35 years, but he was named MVP of the 4 Nations Face-Off as well.

Leon Draisaitl, Oilers: He’s paced the league in goals for much of the season. This has been a mortal season from Connor McDavid, and Draisaitl has carried the offense at times. Leads the league in Net Rating, a catch-all value statistic from The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn similar to WAR in baseball.

Jack Eichel, Golden Knights: He has set a franchise record for points in a season and could finish fourth in the league in scoring. Eichel has become an elite two-way center as well and was one of the best players at the 4 Nations tournament.

Connor Hellebuyck, Jets: Hellebuyck is having one of the best seasons by a goaltender, relative to his peers, of all time. He could lead the league in every major statistical category for goalies while backstopping the best team in the Western Conference. He was 43-11-3 entering Friday night, while backup Eric Comrie was 9-9-1.

Nikita Kucherov, Lightning: He’s the hottest scorer in the league down the stretch and could claim his third scoring title. Part of the argument for Kucherov last year was that he dragged a mediocre team into the playoffs, but the Lightning have been one of the healthiest teams in the NHL this year and could finish as high as fifth in the league standings.

Zach Werenski, Blue Jackets: Werenski was second in goals and points among defensemen going into Friday and has been the face of Columbus’ surprising season in the wake of Johnny Gaudreau’s death. Expected to be one of the three worst teams by nearly every preseason prognosticator, the Jackets are in a fight for the final playoff spot in the East.

Norris Trophy

Cale Makar, Avalanche: Makar is the first defenseman to score 30 goals in a season since Mike Green did it in 2008-09. He can also be the first guy not named Erik Karlsson to lead all defensemen by more than 10 points since Nicklas Lidstrom in 1999-00. He could lead all defensemen in even-strength goals, even-strength points, power-play goals, power-play points, shorthanded goals and shorthanded points.

Zach Werenski, Blue Jackets: He led the league in minutes played per game and total minutes this season going into Friday night. He was second to Makar in goals and points. The Blue Jackets were plus-20 at 5-on-5 with Werenski on the ice and minus-8 with him on the bench. The good feelings narrative about the Blue Jackets could help him with this award as well.

Quinn Hughes, Canucks: Hughes has played about 80% as many games as Makar. He should still finish third in points among defensemen and could lead in points per game. The on-ice/off-ice numbers say the Canucks are good when Hughes plays and quite bad when he does not.

Josh Morrisey, Jets; Jakob Chychrun, Capitals; Rasmus Dahlin, Sabres: Yeah, this is a three-person race. These guys have all had great seasons, but they should be competing for fourth- and fifth-place votes.

Jack Adams Award

Jared Bednar, Avalanche: This award typically goes to a coach whose team defied preseason expectations … or a coach who dealt with a crazy injury situation. Bednar certainly checks the second box, plus he’s also helped his team navigate a historic level of turnover from trades. But MacKinnon and Makar have been healthy through it all, so he probably won’t get the credit he deserves. Stanley Cup contenders don’t use 47 players in a season like … ever.

Spencer Carberry, Capitals: Bednar wouldn’t mind if one of his buddies from Charleston wins, and Carberry has a real chance. Washington is going to improve from 17th in the league standings to either first or second.

Dean Evason, Blue Jackets: Washington has actually improved by more points and more positions in the overall standings, but Columbus was projected to finish near the bottom and might make the playoffs. That, plus what happened with Gaudreau’s death just before the season, could give Columbus more Jack Adams winners (two) than best-of-seven playoff series wins in team history (one).

Jim Montgomery, Blues: The Blues were 26th in the league in points percentage the day Montgomery was hired. They were fifth since he took over going into Friday night. The Bruins, who fired him five days earlier, have not surprisingly been worse since that decision. The former DU Pioneers coach could win for a second time in three seasons.

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