It’s not often that rookie defencemen get a lot of attention in the Calder Trophy race. Last season Zachary Werenski put up one of the strongest rookie seasons in the last decade for a defenceman, but he happened to break into the league at the exact same time as Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, so his chance to grab headlines with brilliant two-way play was neutralized by the 76 highlight-real goals scored between the No. 1 and 2 picks.
In the last 15 seasons a defenceman has won the Calder Trophy just three times, and when two of those names are Tyler Myers and Barret Jackman, you can understand why voters are a little bit hesitant to evaluate defencemen early.
The odds-on favourite to win the Calder this season is probably Brock Boeser, who already has 18 goals in 32 games, with Mathew Barzal being right in the conversation. Clayton Keller would likely be in there too, but most of the focus on the Coyotes has been about how disappointing their season has been, so unless he has a crazy second half, he probably won’t get the attention he deserves.
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That rookie class of forwards is incredible once again, but they aren’t quite as attention grabbing as last season’s, which could open the door for Mikhail Sergachev.
While the Lightning have been lighting teams up all season long, the 19-year-old rookie defenceman has been a huge part of their offence, scoring eight goals already, twice as many as Victor Hedman, and racking up 23 points, one behind the Lightning’s franchise defenceman.
Sergachev is an interesting player, a rare talent stylistically, who isn’t afraid of taking offensive risks that most defencemen won’t take.
Looking at Sergachev’s tendencies with the puck, he’s a one-man zone-transition machine, leading the Lightning in controlled entries and exits among defencemen. One thing that stands out with him is that when you look at his strengths, they stand out in an extreme way.
Only one defenceman in the league logs more scoring chances than Sergachev (Werenski), only two produce more scoring chances for their teammates (Roman Josi and Brent Burns), and only Josi succeeds with more dekes in the offensive zone. That’s some supremely elite company for Sergachev to be in.
Stylistically the player he most resembles is Josi, playing almost like a forward in the offensive zone, but he doesn’t have Josi’s skating ability to recover from mistakes, which can lead to some interesting situations for the Lightning.
Unfortunately for Sergachev, unlike forwards, rookie defencemen are judged much more on their defensive play, and his as a teenager leaves a lot to be desired. Those offensive skills are tantalizing, but he’s still playing just 15 minutes per game as the Lightning break him in slowly compared to a peer like Charles McAvoy in Boston.
Sergachev plays relatively sheltered minutes in Tampa Bay, which isn’t the case for McAvoy, who is playing high-end shutdown minutes with Zdeno Chara, and posting great numbers at the same time.
McAvoy isn’t as dynamic as Sergachev offensively, but he’s only four points behind, and he plays a whopping 8:18 more per game. That’s basically the ice time of a fourth-liner, on top of Sergachev’s ice time.
While Sergachev catches eyes with flashy, game-breaking play, McAvoy is the steady, all-around defenceman you want on a top pairing. If Sergachev is Josi, McAvoy is the Duncan Keith.
Sergachev’s offensive game deserves some major attention this season, but in order to be in that upper echelon of rookies, he might need to take more responsibility down the stretch. McAvoy meanwhile, just needs the chance to stand out to show how great he is.
