After being spoiled the past couple seasons with rookie crops that included Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine (plus an unreal first season by then-24-year-old Artemi Panarin) this year was expected to have a drop-off in terms of high-end rookie talent.
Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick went with the first two picks of the 2017 draft and though both are great players in their own right, they didn’t come with the same pedigree of the McDavid-Eichel or Matthews-Laine duos that came before. And without that top-of-the-draft pop, it was anticipated that this year’s Calder Trophy would go to someone who fell short of 30 goals and/or 70 points.
But as Brock Boeser continues on with a 40-goal pace and Mathew Barzal hums along at 1.02 points per game, the 16th- and 23rd-overall picks of the 2015 draft remind us that diamonds can be found a little further down the rankings, too. On top of those two, Boston’s Charlie McAvoy is playing a lead role on his Stanley Cup-contending team, averaging 22:49 a night, which is four minutes more than the second-most-used rookie.
It’s a much stronger rookie year than originally thought.
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As the Calder Trophy decision looks more and more like a two-horse race, we thought it was a good time to draw attention to some other great rookie performances that are being overshadowed by the leaders. And we won’t even be able to get to all the notables here: Sam Girard has been a revelation for the Avs, Pierre-Luc Dubois has been a top-line Columbus player for more than a month and Mikhail Sergachev and Will Butcher lead first-year blueliners in scoring.
As the all-star break nears, we want to give a shoutout to the players having strong rookie seasons who look to be in line to finish as close-but-no-cigar also-rans after one of Boeser or Barzal wins the Calder in April.
Danton Heinen, Boston Bruins
Last season in Nashville, Viktor Arvidsson had his big breakout as a sophomore, scoring 31 goals and 61 points. Arvidsson was a fourth-round pick in the 2014 draft and is proving to be a diamond in the rough. Now, Heinen, who was selected four picks after Arvidsson in 2014, is having his big year immediately.
Think back to last season and remember all the praise that was heaped on then-Leafs rookies Mitch Marner and William Nylander for their stellar first years. You won’t hear the same level of positivity when mentioning Heinen’s name, but with 32 points in 42 games he’s scoring at a similar pace to what both Nylander and Marner did. At 22, Heinen is coming off an AHL season in which he scored 44 points in 64 games as a rookie pro after moving on from the University of Denver, where he led his team in scoring two consecutive seasons.
In Boston, Heinen has seen his minutes gradually increase and isn’t slowing down his scoring pace. He has 20 points in his past 23 games, mostly playing on the Bruins’ third line with Riley Nash and David Backes, where nearly half his zone starts come in the defensive end.
Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets
Last year’s rookie class had two 30-goal scorers, Matthews and Laine, and this year so far looks like it will only produce one. But had Connor started the season from the very beginning in Winnipeg he might be more of a lock to hit that milestone.
Connor followed a mid-October call-up with a quick ascension to the top line with Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler and hasn’t looked back. He averages north of 17 minutes a game, third-most among Jets forwards, and is averaging just shy of one goal every two games — the same pace he had as an AHL rookie last season. The 21-year-old has been a star sniper at every level of his development and if not for Boeser and his 18 per cent shooting percentage, Connor might be getting more attention in Calder discussions.
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Yanni Gourde, Tampa Bay Lightning
Maybe this is one we should have seen coming, since Gourde took a late-season call-up at the end of 2016-17 to announce his arrival on the NHL scene. Gourde came up for the final 18 games in March and April and scored six times, so the fact he’ll cross 20 goals in his rookie season isn’t too surprising.
When he came up last season, Gourde was all goals and managed just two assists. This season has been an even split (16G, 16A), which has him in a tie for fourth in rookie scoring. There is a degree of unsustainability to what he’s done as he holds a shooting percentage of nearly 20, but Gourde is another quick, sub-6-foot forward in Tampa Bay and he’s making a case for more ice time.
Alexander Kerfoot, Colorado Avalanche
One of the big factors in a turnaround season for the Avalanche is how the team went from being one of the oldest NHL teams last year to one of the youngest this season. Kerfoot, a 23-year-old fifth-round pick from 2012 leads that contingent in his first season out of Harvard University. The 5-foot-10 centre has moved confidently into a second-line role with the Avalanche and though his 26.8 shooting percentage screams of a goal drop-off, the good news is most of his production has come via assists.
A big presence on Colorado’s power play, most of Kerfoot’s points have been of the primary variety; only Hart Trophy candidate Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen have more primary points on the Avs than Kerfoot.
Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils
Since he was the No. 1 overall pick last summer, Hischier came right into the NHL as a 19-year-old with lofty expectations. So the fact he’s barely holding on to a top-10 freshman scoring slot with 29 points in 47 games can gloss over what’s actually been a strong first season.
Unlike some of the other shooters on this list, Hischier has been snakebitten with a low 7.3 shooting percentage, which you have to believe will swing back around next season. And if it does, Hischier could see his goal totals explode. His 108 shots are the fourth-most of this rookie class, behind Boeser, Keller and Charles Hudon.
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