A Way Too Early Look at Potential Calder Trophy Winners for 2020-21

In developing leagues across the world, the NHL has a lot of amazing young stars who could make an impact on NHL ice as soon as next season. The best players from around these developing leagues will all have a shot at winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie Of The Year. How are you eligible to win the trophy? Who could some of these players be? Scroll down the page to find out all the info!

Calder Trophy Rules: To be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, a player cannot have played more than 25 games in any single preceding season nor in six or more games in each of any two preceding seasons in any major professional league. Beginning in 1990-91, a player must not have attained his 26th birthday by Sept. 15 of the season in which he is eligible (NHL.com).

Alexis Lafreniere 

Lafreniere is likely most people’s choice to win the Calder Trophy next year. Consensus is he will be taking his talents to the Rangers and be placed in a good situation to succeed in right away. He could be paired with Zibanejad and Kakko on the top line next year because Panarin was playing with Strome this year. If Lafreniere is on the top power play next year with Panarin, Zibanejad, DeAngelo and Fox, we all know that there isn’t really an excuse for Lafreniere to break at least 55 points, right? He’s got the hands, skill, vision, passing, skating, physicality, size and hockey sense at a high level to make it all work. I can’t really see why Lafreniere can’t explode with the Rangers in year one. He’ll be very exciting to watch. 

Kirill Kaprizov

If Lafreniere isn’t your choice to win the Calder next year, Kirill Kaprizov is most likely your pick. Kirill was drafted all the way back in 2015, 135th overall by Minnesota and has been playing pro in the KHL full time ever since 2015-16. Kaprizov is a tremendous goal scoring winger who put up back to back 30 goal seasons in the KHL. This season, he had 33 goals, 29 assists for 62 points in only 57 games. That’s very impressive for a kid that young in a league like the KHL. He’ll be joining the Minnesota Wild next season that has a solid team with guys like Fiala, Parise, Staal, Suter, Kunin, Kahkonen, Dumba, Spurgeon and Brodin on it. I expect Kaprizov to crack the lineup in 2020-21 and put up a boatload of points (60-70), playing first line minutes. 

Trevor Zegras

Zegras was an absolute star for the Boston University program in the NCAA this season where he racked up 36 points in 33 games. Zegras can either play center or wing, so that’s always a plus. Zegras is a solid playmaker. He knows how to get you the puck in all situations. He also has very good hands and a pretty gross shot. If Zegras makes the NHL full time next year, he should be paired with Rickard Rakell and Jakob Silfverberg. Rakell needs to find consistency so he can be back to the 30 goal mark. While he's scoring goals, have Zegras as your center. He can find players with his great vision and Rakell knows how to find the back of the net. I put Silfverberg on the right side to have that extra complimentary scorer who can chip in here and there and give you 20-25 goals a season. I think this line could be pretty good for the Ducks if everything works out. If they play together full time, Zegras could maybe hit 45-55 points and maybe be a Calder nominee. 

Quinton Byfield: 

Byfield is going to be a force in the NHL. The 6’4 center has a bunch of skills that he can offer any team. He’ll likely be a top six forward on either LA or Ottawa right away if he makes the team in December. He can move extremely well for his size, he can dish the puck off to his teammates and knows what to do at the right time, due to his keen hockey smarts. If he gets drafted by LA, he’ll join a team that has a really good prospect pool and some players on the roster who could put up solid points. He’ll learn from guys like Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, who’ll only help his development. I see him getting around 50-55 points in his first season if he gets drafted to LA. If he gets drafted to Ottawa, he’ll have the chance to play on the top line and maybe even get some power play time with Brady Tkachuk. This will help both of their developments because they’ll be able to teach each other on how to become better players. Brady can help Byfield learn how to become an NHL player. The Sens will also have some highly skilled young forwards who will join the team next year. I also think Byfield could put up around 50-55 points in his first year with Ottawa and potentially be a Calder nominee.

Tim Stutzle: 

Tim Stutzle is a very dangerous forward when he’s on the ice. His dynamic play style allows him to be a dual threat on the ice. He can use his tremendous vision and hockey smarts to find players to pass to so they can generate scoring chances, or he could shoot in on net to generate a chance himself. Stutzle is a player that’ll get new fans in the building because he provides a very fun style of hockey that people can enjoy. Although he does have a fun play style, he does play sort of on the outside, rather than drive more to the middle of the ice. I do think that if he does come over to play in the NHL full time next year, it’ll probably take time for him to learn to drive more to the middle of the ice. If the Kings draft him, they’ll probably start him on the wing either next to Alex Turcotte or Anze Kopitar. I feel that him on the wing will have him put up more points in LA. He’ll probably be able to start on the power play and be a horse there also. I do think that him putting up around 50ish points next year would be a good benchmark to hit. If he does get drafted by Ottawa though, it wouldn’t matter if they played him at wing or center, because they’ll probably put him either with Tkachuk or Chris Tierney to see how he does at the start. 

Alex Turcotte:

Alex Turcotte will likely be the Kings number one center for the future. With him learning from Anze Kopitar it will benefit his game as Kopitar plays the same style of game that Turcotte does. Turcotte is a very good two way center. He can think the game at a very high level, and can dish the puck to teammates very easily. He is a strong skater and will do whatever it takes for his team to win. If Turcotte can make the opening night roster right away next season, hopefully he can fill in the gap that the Kings have in their 2C role. I think that he should play as a 2C because it's going to give him valuable experience going up against other teams' best players. Turcotte should add some muscle because he's been fighting the injury bug over these last few seasons. I think around 40-48 points is reasonable for Turcotte in his first season. 

Bowen Byram: 

Bowen was the player that the Colorado Avalanche got 4th overall from the Ottawa Senators in the Matt Duchene trade. Bowen is a very good two way defender. Although he didn't put up as many points as some people wanted him to this year, he still put up a very impressive 52 points in 50 games in a league catered to more defensive style hockey. Byram is a really good skater who can carry the puck up the ice with ease. Him and Makar in the future will probably be the best pairing in the NHL. Byram, Makar, MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen will form the best power play next year, allowing Byram to be in the Calder race. Byram will be able to put up a ton of points next year, while also being a great player in his own end. I'm guessing he'll probably be around 40ish points if given proper ice time. 

Igor Shesterkin: 

Igor Shesterkin is one of the best young goalies in the world. He finally came over to North America this year to play in the AHL and absolutely dominated. He was called up during the year and played well in 12 regular season games. He went 10-2-0 and had a 2.52 GAA and a .932 sv%. Shesterkin is a very calm goalie. He always brings calmness to his crease every time he enters it. If he gives up a poor goal, he'll forget about it and move on. Since the Rangers are going to be a very scary team next year, expect Shesterkin to rack up many wins and have amazing stats. 

Ilya Sorokin: Ilya Sorokin is another young Russian goalie phenom who has been developing for a while in Russia. He's posted insane numbers playing for CSKA Moscow and his progression will hopefully continue from there hopefully. He'll have to work very hard to win the starting job from Varlamov, but I have faith that he'll get a bunch of games in. With Greiss likely leaving at the end of the season, expect Sorokin to come in and be an effective goalie right away. Sorokin steals games for his team, and he's going to keep doing that for the Isles in years to come. 

Who do you think will win the Calder Trophy next year? Who could be surprises? DM me on Instagram at @futurehockeystars and I'll respond as quick as possible! 

~Luka Tkalcevic (Instagram: luka_tkalcevic, futurehockeystars)