And The Award Goes To......

At the conclusion of the hockey year, the best of the best gather in Las Vegas. Every year in late June the National Hockey League hands out the hardware for the highest individual honors in this great team game. The 2017-18 season was no different, providing fans with high energy hockey, a different look to the game with new superstars stepping into the forefront and helping move along the coolest game on earth. This was, and is, the proper way to close out the year that was and get everybody ready for what's to come with the draft and free agency period looming. So here now is a look at this year's award winners in the NHL for the 2017-18 season.

All Star Teams
First Team
Goalie: Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
Defense: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings
Defense: Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning
Center: Conor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
Right Wing: Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
Left Wing: Taylor Hall, New Jersey Devils

Second Team
Goalie: Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
Defense: Seth Jones, Columbus Blue Jackets
Defense: P.K. Subban, Nashville Predators
Center: Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
Right Wing: Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg Jets
Left Wing: Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers

All Rookie
Goalie: Juuse Saros, Nashville Predators
Defense: Will Butcher, New Jersey Devils, Charlie McAvoy, Boston Bruins
Forwards: Matthew Barzal, New York Islanders, Brock Boeser, Vancouver Canucks, Clayton Keller, Arizona

Here's some of the other awards given out in Vegas.

Art Ross Trophy (Leading Scorer): Conor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers - 108 Points
"Rocket" Richard Trophy (Leading Goal Scorer): Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals - 49 Goals
William M. Jennings Trophy (Fewest Goals Against): Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings - 203 Goals Against
Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoff MVP): Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Mark Messier Leadership Award (Awarded to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice, during the regular season): Deryk Engelland, Vegas Golden Knights
King Clancy Memorial Trophy (Awarded to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community): Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Vancouver Canucks
General Manager Of the Year: George McPhee, Vegas Golden Knights
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (Awarded to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey): Bryan Boyle, New Jersey Devils
Frank J. Selke Trophy (Best Defensive Forward): Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings
Ted Lindsay Award (MVP voted on By Players): Conor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers

Jack Adams Award (Coach Of The Year): Gerard Gallant, Vegas Golden Knights
Bruce Cassidy of the Bruins had a good year in Boston, as did Jared Bednar, who lead the Avalanche to a fantastic year in Denver. But what Gallant was able to do in Vegas with the Golden Knights is the stuff of legend. He was able to take a bunch of guys who were viewed, to a degree, as castoffs from the rest of the league, and turn them into a team that came three wins shy of winning hockey's ultimate prize. Gallant lead the Golden Knights to one of the greatest inaugural seasons, not only in the history of hockey, but in possibly all of sports. Gallant was let go after a slow start with the Panthers a season ago, now stands on top of the hockey world as the best coach in the game this year.

Calder Memorial Trophy (Rookie Of The Year): Matthew Barzal, New York Islanders
Barzal ran away with the Calder as top rookie and it was a pretty obvious choice that he was going to win the award. He finished with 85 points, which not only lead the league among the rookies, but it was also good enough to top the Islanders in scoring, one point better then team captain John Tavares. He's also the fifth Islanders player to win the award, joining Denis Potvin (1974), Bryan Trottier (1976), Mike Bossy (1977) and Bryan Berard (1997). With Barzal, he was at the top of his game most of the year and was one of the fastest skaters in all of hockey. The only rookie who came close to putting up the numbers Barzal did was Brock Boeser, who got hurt with a back injury in late March and missed the rest of the season. If Boeser had been able to stay healthy, he may have made this a closer race for the Calder. Barzal was still top of the heap for the rookie class this year.

James Norris Memorial Trophy (Best Defenseman): Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning
This was a close decision to make between Hedman, PK Subban of Nashville and Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings. Hedman is the first Lightning player to ever win the award. Hedman is also the third Swedish to win the Norris Trophy, joining Erik Karlsson (twice) and Nicklas Lidstrom (seven times). This year's voting was close as both Subban and Doughty had fantastic seasons, but Hedman put up something that was different. Both Subban and Doughty had played on good teams, as did Hedman, but those two have been playing at a level that are expected of them. Hedman is too but he took his game to another level this season and was viewed as the total anchor of this Tampa team that was one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. I just feel that if you take all three guys out of their respective lineups, Tampa's blue line would have been a little more effected by the loss of Hedman then Nashville without Subban and LA without Doughty.

Vezina Trophy (Best Goaltender): Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
After being nominated for the award four times prior, and playing brides maid twice, Rinne finally waked away with the award for the best goalie in the game. Its the first time a Nashville goalie has walked away with the award. The other two finalists for the award, Connor Hellebuyck and Andrei Vasilevskiy, had outstanding years in their own rights. Vasilevskiy lead the league with 44 wins and Hellebuyck broke the record for most wins in a single season by an American born netminder. But Rinne also put up numbers that seperated himself from the rest of his netminding brothers. Rinne ranked fifth in goals-against average (2.31) and tied for sixth in save percentage (927). He also tied with Vasilevskiy for the league lead with eight shutouts on the year. What also helped separate him from the rest of the pack is where the Predators finished in the regular season standings. The fact that Nashville finished the year with the best record in all of hockey say something. Rinne was a huge reason for that and is fully deserving of being the best goalie in the league this year.

Hart Memorial Trophy (League MVP): Taylor Hall, new Jersey Devils
Taylor Hall becomes the first New Jersey Devils player to win the Hart as league MVP. He just edged out Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado and Anze Kopitar of the Kings. MacKinnon did a lot to be able to help carry the Avs to a playoff spot after being one of the worst teams in the league the year before. There's no denying he had a fantastic year. But he wasn't able to do what Hall did for the Devils. Hall finished this season with 39 goals and 94 points, both of which were career highs. Those numbers are good, but what makes Hall's season even more impressive is that the next highest point producer on the Devils was Nico Hischier, who had 52 points. Hall nearly doubled the point production of the next best player on the Devils this year. He also had a 21 game point streak during the season. Hall's performance helped power the Devils from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to their first playoff berth since 2012. Just imagine how bad the Devils would have been had they not had Taylor Hall in the lineup. He was the best player in the best league in the world in 2018.