The NHL held their awards announcement show tonight to name the Hart, Ted Lindsey, Calder and Vezina trophies. Following a significantly below average season from the Blackhawks one player took a top three spot in the voting for Calder Trophy for the NHL rookie of the year.
Rookie sensation and pending restricted free agent Dominik Kubalik took third place behind winner Cale Makar, from Colorado, and runner up Quinn Hughes, from Vancouver. Kubalik didn’t receive any first place votes, but he did get two second and 75 third place votes. These are the final voting results:
Tight vote for the Calder but a clear preference. pic.twitter.com/zBOKkxUski
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) September 21, 2020
Kubalik was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings on January 24, 2019, for a 2019 fifth round pick in the NHL entry draft after he won the scoring title in the Swiss National League with 57 points (25 goals, 32 assists) in 50 games. He made the Blackhawks out of training camp, last October, and went on to score 46 points (30 goals, 16 assists) in 68 games, winning the rookie of the month honors in January. During the Blackhawks unexpected postseason appearance, he added eight points (four goals, four assists) in nine games.
Arguably, one of the most important jobs for Stan Bowman during this upcoming condensed offseason is getting Kubalik re-signed to an affordable contract so that they can also sign a starting goalie and, potentially, extend some more of their depth players like Drake Caggiula and Slater Koekkoek.