The Top 5 Calder Candidates for the 2024-25 NHL Season
The best part of the NHL season is always the new crop of rookies.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have only had one single player win the Calder Trophy in the history of their franchise, post NHL expansion.
Before the NHL expanded beyond six teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs had several Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) winners, including Frank Mahovlich and Brit Selby.
But since expansion, it's just Auston Matthews, who won the award in 2016 after being picked first-overall and then scoring four times in his debut NHL game.
Matthews led the Leafs to the playoffs and they haven't missed since.
Despite a playoff losing record that has all but rendered their regular season success invisible, Matthews has lived up to every single bit of the hype that comes with being the top pick and winning the Calder Trophy.
Last year's top pick, Connor Bedard, also won the Calder as the NHL's best rookie. His career looks to be on track to be almost as exciting as Matthews, and that of course leads us to this year's top pick.
But the top pick doesn't always win the Calder.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have one player who might have something to say about it, and there are at least three other players who hope to have a shot as well.
Here are your top five candidates for the Calder Trophy in the 2024-25 NHL season.
The Favorite
Macklin Celebrin was drafted first-overall by the San Jose Sharks and will enter this season as the favorite to win the Calder.
Celebrini is a future star who should be about as good as Jack Hughes or Rasmus Dahlin. He isn't likely to enter into the Auston Matthews/ Connor Mcdavid Stratosphere.
He probably isn't going to enter the Nathan MacKinnon/ Connor Bedard tier either, but should be a better player than Owen Power or Nico Hischier.
Although, who knows? Did anyone expect Nikita Kucherov to be one of the best players of all-time when he was drafted?
The draft is just a big guess, and though Celebrini appears in line for stardom, who knows?
Big Mac, as I'm sure they will call him, scored nearly a goal per game (32 in 38) last year at Boston University. Is that good? Probably. I don't pretend to know much about American University hockey or how much competition there is, but it was obviously good enough to get him picked first-overall.
Celebrini has a good chance at the Calder but will be hurt because his team absolutely sucks. Though number-one picks almost always go straight to the NHL, given the advantage of having a superstar on an entry-level contract, you'd think teams would hold them back a year to try to win sooner, but what do I know?
The Toronto Maple Leafs Option
Easton Cowan was drafted 28th overall by the Leafs last year.
If the draft was re-done today, he'd be a top-ten pick, easily.
Cowan scored 96 points in 54 games and would have won the OHL scoring title if he didn't miss 12 games. He scored at a higher rate than the eventual league leader.
Cowan scored 68 points over a scoring streak that lasted 36 games, something no OHL player has done since 1995.
He was the OHL's MVP. He led the OHL playoffs in scoring, and his London Knights won the OHL Championship.
Other winners of the OHL Most Outstanding Player Award include: Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid.
I'm not saying that Easton Cowan is on their level, but he's definitely a lot closer than the day he was drafted.
A look at the Leafs potential roster next season makes it reasonable to assume that Cowan will be on it. The potential superstar is too young to play in the AHL and there is nothing left for him to accomplish in junior.
Mitch Marner played an extra year in the OHL after being drafted and that was also when he won the MVP. Cowan being a Calder Caliber Player in 2024 will evelate the Leafs to something like the best team in hockey.
If Celebrini is the favorite, Cowan is the best bet though because unlike every other player on this list, he's going to play behind a whole bunch of elite players and likely be sheltered quite a bit.
Players like Michkov and Celebrini, on the other hand, have no where to hide on their respective rosters.
The Other Top Pick
Matvei Michkov
Michkov is the 7th overall pick from the 2023 draft and will play for the Philadelphia Flyers this upcoming season.
A lot of people have Michkov as the odds-on favorite, and there's a very good chance that he can win the Calder as he is expected to score a lot.
Not only that, but the Flyers are a pretty bad team, which means there won't be anyone in his way when it comes to getting top-unit power-play time or ice time with the team's best players.
In his draft year, Michkov was expected to go earlier, but being a Russian in today's day and age means that when the NHL draft comes around, you are almost certain to be selected lower than your talent level suggests you should be.
This despite the fact that I don't even know of a single high-profile Russian prospect who hasn't eventually come to play in the NHL.
The teams ahead of the Flyers on draft day all thought that Michkov might just play his whole life in the KHL, and so the Flyers got somethign like a top-three pick at seventh.
Not too bad!
Michkov will no-doubt be exciting to watch, but I think that the lack of insulation and the constant shifts against other team's top lines will be too much for him to overcome vs someone like Easton Cowan who, should he be in the NHL, will get to play much easier minutes.
Other Potential Winners
Will Smith
I will save you the sitcom, rap, Ali, and Chris Rock punching jokes and just point out that there are also several Will Smith's in the MLB.
This one, the fourth overall selection from 2023, is a hockey player.
This Will Smith played in the East Coast hockey league, just like his teammate Macklin Celebrini, and so I have no real way of comparing his stats to someone like Easton Cowan.
The scouting reports however say that he is going to be awesome.
Dobber calls him a two-way forward with defensive skills who can hit, but who also has elite offensive instincts.
He sounds like an awesome player, and might rack up the points if teams focus a bit harder on Celebrini, but I think he's a longshot to win the Calder, mostly due to having a way better teammate who is also in the running.
Other Potential Winners
Ivan Demidov
Another exciting entry to the Calder race is the Montreal Canadians Ivan Demidov.
The 5th overall pick from this year's draft is a player who likely could have and should have went higher.
Once again, the "Russian Factor" (this time aided by a ton of high-end defenseman also available) allowed a lower drafting team to get a player they'd usually not have a chance at.
This was a huge gift to the Canadiens and it could pay off as soon as this year.
The Canadians might not rush him to the NHL, but if they do, he's got a good shot at the Calder.
Not only do the Canadians have the ability to surround him with an absolute ton of offensive talent, but they are now starting to be a decent team and should be able to insulate him a little better than the Sharks or Flyers can insulate their potential stars.
Now there is no gauarntee that he even plays in the NHL next season, but if he does, expect the extremely talented Russian to compete for the Clader.
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As for who I will bet on, I doubt I have to even tell you, but it's Easton Cowan and I predict he's going to be a superstar.