My 2021-22 NHL Awards Ballot

The rest of the 2021-22 NHL Awards were announced this evening.

Here’s my official NHL Awards ballot, along with some of my reasoning.

HART TROPHY

Winner: Auston Matthews

My vote:

1. Igor Shesterkin
2. Connor McDavid
3. Cale Makar
4. Roman Josi
5. Auston Matthews

I believe the MVP award should be for all players, not just forwards, so I’ve selected a goalie, two defensemen, and two forwards. The “most valuable” to his team aspect of this award came into play when I decided on my final five. There’s a good argument for Josi being more valuable to his team than Makar, but Makar having a better season, so I still kept them in the same order as my Norris voting. But I do think Shesterkin, McDavid, Makar, and Josi were more valuable to their respective teams than Matthews, no slight on the Toronto center’s remarkable season.

NORRIS TROPHY

Winner: Cale Makar

My vote:

1. Cale Makar
2. Roman Josi
3. Victor Hedman
4. Adam Fox
5. Charlie McAvoy

Actual defense is one of the reasons why I gave Makar, a brilliant offensive defenseman, a slight edge over Josi, a brilliant offensive defenseman. Makar was used more on the PK (1:25 Per Game), offering a slightly more well-rounded game, than Josi (00:43).

CALDER TROPHY

Winner: Moritz Seider

My vote:

1. Moritz Seider
2. Trevor Zegras
3. Lucas Raymond
4. Anton Lundell
5. Michael Bunting

Zegras and Raymond stepped into Anaheim and Detroit’s respective top-six seamlessly, but a defenseman like Seider who plays in all situations and munches big minutes is always going to be my vote. Seider is the only rookie blueliner to average more than 21 minutes a night, and he dropped 50 points on top of that.

LADY BYNG TROPHY

Winner: Kyle Connor

My vote:

1. Jaccob Slavin
2. Kyle Connor
3. Ryan O’Reilly
4. Jared Spurgeon
5. Mika Zibanejad

Connor’s two minor penalties – coupled with 93 points in 79 games – is impressive, but maintaining a gentlemanly-but-still-effective-game as a shutdown center or forward like Slavin, Spurgeon, and O’Reilly always catches my eye.

SELKE TROPHY

Winner: Patrice Bergeron

My vote:

1. Ryan O’Reilly
2. Elias Lindholm
3. Patrice Bergeron
4. J.T. Miller
5. Aleksander Barkov

O’Reilly won it for me because of his combination of tough match-ups and zone starts and heavy PK usage. Bergeron is still a legitimate shutdown center, but the Boston Bruins have lightened up on his defensive zone starts for years. Based on feedback from Vancouver fans, Miller was a bit of a controversial choice, but I’ve liked him defensively when I’ve watched him, he had tough zone starts and match-ups, and they used him heavily on the PK.

NHL ALL-STAR TEAM

Center

My vote:

1. Connor McDavid
2. Auston Matthews
3. Leon Draisaitl

Right Wing

My vote:

1. Mitch Marner
2. Matthew Tkachuk
3. Mikko Rantanen

Left Wing

My vote:

1. Johnny Gaudreau
2. Jonathan Huberdeau
3. Kirill Kaprizov

Defense

Winners:

My vote:

1. Cale Makar
2. Roman Josi
3. Victor Hedman
4. Adam Fox
5. Charlie McAvoy
6. Kris Letang

Goaltender

My vote:

1. Igor Shesterkin
2. Frederik Andersen
3. Juuse Saros

NHL ALL-ROOKIE TEAM

Forward

My vote:

1. Trevor Zegras
2. Lucas Raymond
3. Anton Lundell

Defense

My vote:

1. Moritz Seider
2. Jamie Drysdale

Goaltender

My Vote:

1. Alex Nedeljkovic

MASTERTON TROPHY

Winner: Carey Price

My vote:

1. Carey Price

2. Kevin Hayes

3. Zdeno Chara

OTHER 2021-22 NHL AWARDS WINNERS (NOT VOTED ON BY PHWA)

Vezina Trophy (Igor Shesterkin), Ted Lindsay Award (Auston Matthews), Art Ross Trophy (Connor McDavid), Rocket Richard Trophy (Auston Matthews), Masterton Trophy (Carey Price), William M. Jennings Trophy (Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta), King Clancy Memorial Trophy (P.K. Subban), Jack Adams Award (Darryl Sutter), Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award (Anze Kopitar), Willie O’Ree Community Award (Noel Acton from Baltimore)

Every vote. Every award. Every error and omission.

When it comes to voting on #NHLAwards, @ThePHWA is proud to show our work in the spirit of full transparency. Our people and our process get it right, year after year.

Here are our 2022 ballots:https://t.co/O5Arz2wS0E

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 22, 2022