Fantasy Nhl Awards

Now that we're into 2008, recovered from our hangovers (or flus, in my case), and pretty much halfway through the NHL season, it's time to reminisce about the past and look towards the future. There is no better way to do both than be looking at the league's rookies through the first half.

Here are the rookie scoring leaders as of January 3rd ...

Player	Team	GP	G	A	P	PIM	+/-	TOI/G
Patrick Kane	CHI	38	9	28	37	26	-2	18:29
Jonathan Toews	CHI	36	15	17	32	26	5	18:42
Nicklas Backstrom	WSH	40	7	22	29	10	-3	17:27
Tobias Enstrom	ATL	41	3	21	24	20	4	24:03
Martin Hanzal	PHX	38	3	17	20	16	0

For sure, the most surprising rookie on the top five is Tobias Enstrom of the Atlanta Thrashers. The 23-year old from Sweden was an 8th round selection in the 2003 Entry Draft, and pretty much written off as another 'small' (ie. under six feet tall) offensive defenseman who would never do well out of Europe.

Well, Enstrom is getting the most ice time for any rookie, by far, and is giving the Thrashers an unexpected boost to their rather poor defence corps. It's very hard for a defenseman to just come into the league and look like a 10-year vet (it took Lubomir Visnovsky a few years, for example), but Enstrom has done just that.

If I had to hand out a rookie of the year award for Hockey blogging for the 2006-07 NHL season, one of the top contenders for the award would have to be The Forechecker. Bursting onto the scene as a regular presence in the preseason, The Forechecker combined hockey smarts, number crunching and a penchant for detail to produce consistently compelling prose.

In his latest post, parceling out a number of postseason awards that nobody really wants to win, he fearlessly names names and unearths stats that most NHL player agents would rather see remain buried:

CROSS-CHECKER OF THE YEAR: The nominees are...

Joni Pitkanen, Philadelphia Flyers (5)
Brent Seabrook, Chicago Blackhawks (5)
Sheldon Souray, Montreal Canadiens (7)
Brendan Witt, New York Islanders (6)

And the winner is... Sheldon Souray! It's been a season of extremes for Souray - the most goals scored among NHL defensemen (26), the worst +/- rating (-28), and the third-most penalty minutes (135) to go along with this Cross-Checking award.

Ouch! Bet you're thinking twice about seeing your favorite team drop a couple of million a year to bring Souray to town now, eh? Don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from. As for The Forechecker, here's hoping he'll be cycling back into the zone next season to cause some more havoc.

Sidney Crosby took just two seasons to reach the top of the scoring latter, winning the Art Ross trophy with 120 points, six more than 2nd place finisher Joe Thornton.

To most in the hockey world, this is no big surprise, especially after finishing with 102 points last season as an 18-year old.

"It's a nice accomplishment, and I didn't come into this season expecting it," Crosby told reporters after setting up both Pittsburgh goals in a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday night. "I tried to have the best season possible, and I was lucky enough to get it."

Crosby is the youngest Art Ross winner ever, although Wayne Gretzky was slightly younger when he tied Marcel Dionne for the league lead with 137 points in 1979-80. Dionne got the trophy that year for scoring more goals, however.

Crosby also beat out Gretzky by 140 days to become the youngest player ever to post 200 career points. Crosby, who now has 222 regular-season goals and assists, reached 200 at 19 years 207 days old.

The NHL's top scorers this season:

Player        GP G  A  PTS

Sidney Crosby 79 36 84  120

Joe Thornton  82 22 92  114

V. Lecavalier 82 52 56  108

Dany Heatley  82 50 55  105

M. St. Louis  82 43 59  102
 

The NHL's best and brightest stars get lots of press, adoration, and their share of the league's awards.

How about the worst of the lot? How about a little bit of attention for these poor folks? I'm sure, after having such poor seasons, that these d00d's need a little love, too.

So, here are the 'best' of the worst:

+/-

R.J. Umberger -30
Joffrey Lupul -28
Patrice Bergeron -27
Kyle Calder -27

Shot %

Stephane Robidas 0% (104 shots)
Niklas Kronvall 0% (104 shots)
Martin Skoula 0% (90 shots)
Steve Montador 1.1% (87 shots)

Missed Shots
Simon Gagne 174
Alexander Ovechkin 145
Ilya Kovalchuk 135
Olli Jokinen 134
Brian Rolston 134

Save Percentage
Marc Denis 88.3%
Mikael Tellqvist 88.5%
Alexander Auld 88.8%
Curtis Sanford 88.9%
Brent Johnson 88.9%