NHL hands Out Hardware

It's the acknowledgement of great individual efforts in a team sport. The best of the best from the 2023 NHL season were on hand in Nashville last night for the NHL Awards. All the big hardware was given out last evening and lets see who walked away with what.

All Rookie Team:
Forwards: Matty Beniers (Seattle), Wyatt Johnson (Dallas), Matias Marcelli (Arizona)
Defense: Owen Power (Buffalo), Jake Sanderson (Ottawa)
Goalie: Stuart Skinner (Edmonton)

All Star Teams:
1st Team:
Forwards: Jason Robertson (Dallas), Conor McDavid (Edmonton), David Pastrnak (Boston)
Defense: Adam Fox (NY Rangers), Erik Karlson (San Jose)
Goalie: Linus Ullmark (Boston)

2nd Team:
Forwards: Artemi Panarin (NY Rangers)< Leon Drisital (Edmonton), Matthew Tkachuk (Florida)
Defense: Hampus Lindholm (Boston), Cale Makar (Colorado)
Goalie: Ilya Sorokin (NY Islanders)

Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award (U.S.): Jason McCrimmon, Detroit Ice Dreams Youth Hockey Association

E.J. McGuire Award of Excellence: Connor Bedard, Regina Pats (WHL)

Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins

Frank J. Selke Trophy: Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins

King Clancy Memorial Trophy: Mikael Backlund, Calgary Flames

Lady Byng Memorial Trophy: Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings

Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award: Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning

Ted Lindsay Award: Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers

 Jack Adams Award: Jim Montgomery, Boston Bruins

Calder Memorial Trophy: Matty Beniers, Seattle Kraken

Vezina Trophy: Linus Ullmark, Boston Bruins

James Norris Memorial Trophy: Erik Karlsson, San Jose Sharks

Hart Memorial Trophy: Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers

Now for the biggest questions of the night, did they get the award winners right? And the answer is a yes from where I sit. Sure, in years past we've had debates over who should have won what. Yes, there are cases that you could make for this years awards too. Ullmark had a fantastic year in between the pipes for Boston, and nothing against Hellebuck in Winnepeg or Sorokin on Long Island, but his 40 wins really helped push Ullmark over the edge. For those guys, Ullmark and Soroking, some have debated online who should have finished higher in Vexzna voting based on where they finished in MVP voting. Sorokin got more votes for MVP than Ullmark did. Ullmark had the better wins and total goalie numbers which is why he won the top honors there. Sorokin got more votes for MVP because if you take them both out of their respective team lineups the Bruins are still a really good team without Ullmark, whereas the Isles aren't without Sorokin, even with Ullmark having the better numbers.

Sticking with MVP talk, you could have throw Tkachuk name a little higher in voting, because of the impact he had on turning the Panthers had the second half of the season, and Pasta had a great year in Boston as well. But there was really no debate here McDavid was the MVP. 60 goals, 153 points. Nobody even close to his level. He's one of only six players in league history to ever have 150 or more points in a single season. McDavid joins Bernie Nichols (150 in 1989), Steve Yzerman (155 in 1989), Phil Esposito (152 in 1971), Mario Lemieux (four times: best 199 in 1989) and Wayne Gretzky (nine times: best 212 in 1986). Eye popping numbers to read that's for sure