2014 NHL Awards: Avalanche Warning?

[ColinMills]

With 4 guys set to be nominated for awards this June, which ones do you think actually come away with the hardware? Here is an article breaking down their chances:

http://thehockeywriters.com/vegas-va...anche-warning/

[Eazy BZ]

Mackinnon should have the Calder all locked up for sure, leads all rookies in points, goals, and assists. Plus minus is great. He broke Gretzky's record for longest point streak for a rookie, an he's 18 years old compared to the 23 year old Palat.

Roy definitely has a great shot for the Jack Adams, it'll be close though with Babcock leading the wings into a playoff spot with all the injuries they had over the season.

For Varlamov and O'rielly to win their awards, it's going to be very close, lot's of great talent to compete with, it can go either way

[Pengwin7]

MacK is a lock for the Calder.
Roy isn't my pick for Adams (Cooper) - as most writers view themselves more as a "Cooper" than as a "Roy".
Varly, Rask, Bishop should be the Vezina candidates. I think that vote will be very, very, very close.
If Rask/Bishop can split the Eastern-bias votes... Varly could sneak in.
Personally, I think Bishop, then Rask are most deserving - not to take anything away from Varly's solid year.

[Axeman33]

MacKinnon will win the Calder.

I think Patty Roy will win the Jack Adams even if I can't stand him.

I think Rask gets the Vezina.

I never know who's going to win the Lady Bing but as your article states, Pavel Datsyuk is normally the expected favorite to win so I am going to go with him.

[ericdaoust]

The thing that I didn't see coming about Roy is that by all accounts he has been a good listener. I had always assumed that wouldn't be the case due to his Stanley Cup rings plugging his ears. Silly me.

MacKinnon and Roy will win awards IMO. The rest will not.

[The Bottlenecker]

The thing that I didn't see coming about Roy is that by all accounts he has been a good listener. I had always assumed that wouldn't be the case due to his Stanley Cup rings plugging his ears. Silly me.

MacKinnon and Roy will win awards IMO. The rest will not.

Agree with everything ericdaoust said here. Remember though, he only plugged his ears with his Stanley Cup rings when his jock was in the rafters.

[Fast Tony DeNiro]

Mac wins the Calder, Roy the Adams, and O'Reilly the Byng. Varly has a real chance at the Vezina as well.

Mac and RoR seem like locks to me. O'Reilly only took one penalty all year, for playing with a broken stick. I'm not sure what else someone has to do to win the Lady Byng. Roy, Babcock, and Cooper are all tight for the Adams but Detroit is Detroit....I don't care that they had some injuries they replaced those guys with Nyquist and Tatar, and had enough depth to overcome them. Same with Tampa, they lost Stamkos but had Johnson, Palat, Killorn, and Kucherov there to step up along with Hedman and Bishop taking huge steps in their games.

Colorado is coming off of being so bad they had the 1st pick in the draft. And now they're like the 3rd best team in the league? Ya I'll take that one.

[rataylor22]

Colorado is coming off of being so bad they had the 1st pick in the draft. And now they're like the 3rd best team in the league? Ya I'll take that one.

Tampa finished with 1 more point last season and picked 2 spots lower, and didn't get an NHL ready player contributing 60 points in his rookie season. They finished 11 points back of Colorado but 2nd in their division. Basically, what I'm saying is their turn-around was just as big and they didn't have the luxury of adding anyone of Mackinnon's caliber. Not to mention losing Stamkos for 4 months. Avs didn't lose anyone of that significance for that length of time. Which is to say, any possible argument you can make for Roy can be just as easily made for Cooper, and I might give Cooper the edge based on the Stamkos/St. Louis losses. The real issue I'm trying to get at is both teams had just as big of then around. Barring a massive St. Louis collapse Colorado would have finished second in their division as well.

[HockeyProphet]

Tampa finished with 1 more point last season and picked 2 spots lower, and didn't get an NHL ready player contributing 60 points in his rookie season. They finished 11 points back of Colorado but 2nd in their division. Basically, what I'm saying is their turn-around was just as big and they didn't have the luxury of adding anyone of Mackinnon's caliber. Not to mention losing Stamkos for 4 months. Avs didn't lose anyone of that significance for that length of time. Which is to say, any possible argument you can make for Roy can be just as easily made for Cooper, and I might give Cooper the edge based on the Stamkos/St. Louis losses. The real issue I'm trying to get at is both teams had just as big of then around. Barring a massive St. Louis collapse Colorado would have finished second in their division as well.

Palat wasn't too far off? They also had Tanguay, Parenteau, Duchene out for long periods. And I think it's unfair to say it was STL play that got them where they finished, COL has a good 10 game stretch to finish the season.

HOWEVER, I see your point, obviously Roy carries more prestige, and has shown immediate success, which plays into the appeal.

I think the interesting vote is for Vezina though. Rask was outstanding, as was Varly. He notched a Roy franchise record, so that says something.

[rataylor22]

Duchene played 71 games. I'd hardly compare that to the time Stamkos missed, and if we're going to start comparing losing Parenteau and Tanguay to losing Stamkos then I can't even address the convo. Tampa played without Ryan Malone for large stretches of the season, which is about equivalent to Parenteau's contributions.

Palat played in games last year for Tampa, he didn't do much to improve their record. He played over a quarter if the season for them last game.

Yes, Colorado had a very good final 10 game stretch, but if St. Louis wins 1 of those 8 they dropped then it wouldn't have mattered.

[Fast Tony DeNiro]

Tampa finished with 1 more point last season and picked 2 spots lower, and didn't get an NHL ready player contributing 60 points in his rookie season. They finished 11 points back of Colorado but 2nd in their division. Basically, what I'm saying is their turn-around was just as big and they didn't have the luxury of adding anyone of Mackinnon's caliber. Not to mention losing Stamkos for 4 months. Avs didn't lose anyone of that significance for that length of time. Which is to say, any possible argument you can make for Roy can be just as easily made for Cooper, and I might give Cooper the edge based on the Stamkos/St. Louis losses. The real issue I'm trying to get at is both teams had just as big of then around. Barring a massive St. Louis collapse Colorado would have finished second in their division as well.

Fair enough. Adding Johnson, Palat, and Bishop probably played a part in the Lightning turning things around this year. They all played some games in Tampa last year but for the most part they were all new additions this year.

Roy and Cooper are my top two, maybe I'm a little biased because I play goalie and started playing in the late 90's. Losing Parenteau and Tanguay may not equate to Stamkos, but they were big losses regardless and the Avs don't exactly have the prospect pipeline to pull from that the Lightning do. The Avs are also lacking that elite #1 defender that Hedman finally became this year.

Anyway, Roy gets my vote. But Cooper definitely has a great case.

[rataylor22]

It's not so much that I don't think Roy deserves it. I just see most people calling him a runaway candidate and an easy choice and it's all for basically the exact same reasons you could say of Cooper. Like. Their resumes are basically identical, as are what they did to their respective teams.

Personally, my 3 for Jack Adams are Claude Julien, Joel Quenville, and Mike Babcock. We as hockey enthusiast (and the voters do as well) tend to shade to the team that performs most surprisingly in a positive way. Just saying, does it seem right that between those three coaches they have a combined 2 Jack Adams wins, which are supposed to go to the best coach? And only 1 of those (Julien) was won it with their current teams. There is something to be said about consistent greatness, and while these 3 aren't the most surprising coaches this year, I personally feel they are the 3 best coaches in the league this year.