Newsstand: Michigan hockey alum the favorite for NHL's Calder Award
Michigan hockey has been an NHL talent factory over the years and could have the league’s best rookie. Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken is the odds-on favorite for the Calder Trophy heading into Monday’s NHL Awards.
Fanduel has Beniers, who led all first-year NHL players in goals and total points (second in assists) during the 2022-23 season, at -650 to win the Calder honors.
Seattle Kraken reporter Bob Condor runs through Beniers’ case for the award:
Beniers is the favorite to win the Calder Trophy (named for the NHL’s first president with a term from 1917 to the mid-1940s) despite not once earning the league’s Rookie of the Month honors. No matter, as Beniers led all first-year NHLers in goals and total points (and second in assists). He played like a first-line center on a Kraken team that doesn’t gravitate to first-line vs. second-line status.
When urged by the Kraken coaching staff and hockey operations group to improve his faceoffs skills and results, he made it part of his stay-late-after-practices routine and, by playoffs time, was routinely taking defensive-zone faceoffs in late minutes of tight games. While leading all rookies in scoring, Beniers endured streaks of games without a goal or assists. Through it all, Beniers defended tenaciously when situations demanded and his disciplined play and hockey IQ are evident in his being called for just one penalty all season.
No former Michigan player has ever won the Calder Trophy. That will likely change on Monday night.
Tweets of the day
Michigan quote of the day
“I don’t want to go on and on about Michigan, but I’d probably just say we’re high IQ dudes. We understand how to play the game and how to think the game. That’s just kudos to the program and everyone that put us through that and helped us understand that. We have a culture down there, so I feel like that is probably why we are in this organization today.”
– Orlando Magic wing Jett Howard on playing for Michigan basketball
Headlines of the day
Blue Chips: Insight on recent Michigan linebacker commit Jaden Smith
Michigan Recruiting Roundtable: How important is landing Top 100 WR Gatlin Bair?
National Take: How Top 100 Michigan QB commit Jadyn Davis stacked up at Elite 11 Finals
Michigan football: Intel, thoughts on every freshman early enrollee
