Every Calder Trophy winner from the NHL expansion era

We will note that, had we started a year earlier, the Calder winner was some guy named Bobby Orr. The next year, his Bruins teammate Sanderson won the award. While Sanderson was not en route to becoming a legend like his teammate, the forward was no slouch, including 24 goals and 25 assists in his rookie season. By the way, you know Orr’s iconic Cup-clinching goal? Sanderson had the assist on that.

Grant played for the Minnesota North Stars when he won the Calder. His season was headlined by 34 goals on the campaign. Several seasons later, he’d score 50 with the Red Wings, but that was in the “Wild West” era of the NHL when goals were easier to come by. On the other hand, he had five shorthanded goals that season.

No disrespect to Sanderson and Grant, but Tony Esposito is a step up in terms of career quality. Phil’s younger brother was 26 when he debuted, but he was a goalie, and goalies often take longer to become “NHL ready.” It was worth the wait for Chicago, though. Esposito didn’t just win the Calder in 1970, but also the Vezina. That was the first of three Vezinas in his Hall of Fame career.

Back-to-back Hall of Famers. Perreault was the first pick in the history of the Buffalo Sabres. It panned out. He remains the franchise’s foremost legend (outside of Dominik Hasek, perhaps) having spent his entire career in Buffalo, amassing 1,326 points in 1,191 games. As a rookie, he notched 38 goals and 34 assists in his age-19 season.

Dryden pulled off quite the feat, winning the Conn Smythe as playoffs MVP the season before he won the Calder. Having only appeared in six regular-season games in the 1970-71 season for the Canadiens, he was still eligible as a rookie the next year. Dryden was an interesting character — he once sat out a season in a contract dispute and got a law degree — but his short career in net still got him into the Hall of Fame.

After three legends in a row, Vickers stands out a bit. However, he was no slouch, especially early. In fact, he tallied at least 30 goals in his first four seasons with the Rangers. Then, for whatever reason, he started to fall off. After the Rangers demoted him to the AHL during the 1981-82 season, Vickers decided to retire.

Apologies to Vickers, but here’s another Hall of Famer! At least the Rangers fans who rooted for Vickers have made their displeasure for Potvin known… decades after he retired. The Islanders legend is one of the best defensemen of all time, with three Norris Trophies to his name. That all started when he was a rookie, when he had 17 goals and 37 assists as a teenaged defenseman in the NHL.

Here’s something old school: Vail won the Calder for the Flames… the Atlanta Flames. He led the squad with 39 goals, though with an elevated 22.0 shooting percentage he never matched again. Vail had a solid, unremarkable career, which ended soon after the Flames pulled up stakes and moved to Calgary.

A couple years after Potvin won a Calder with the Islanders, Trottier followed suit. A Hall of Famer like his teammate, though a center and not a defenseman, Trottier was often seen as the “heart” of the Islanders. However, it’s not like he didn’t score. In addition to his Calder, he won a Hart the same season he won the Art Ross.

For a fifth-round pick, Plett had an impressive career. Like Vail, he won the Calder with the Flames. He had 33 goals and 56 points, but in only 64 games. Apparently Plett had a thing with franchises who would end up moving. After leaving the Flames, he played for the Minnesota North Stars.

How does a franchise win four Cups in a row? Well, having three Calder winners in five seasons helps, especially when they all become Hall of Famers. Bossy may have been the best of the bunch, though injuries cut his career short. The sharpshooter set a rookie record with 53 goals, and tallied 50 goals in every season except his final one, when he scored “only” 38 goals in 63 games. Bossy was only 30 when his back gave out on him, but he scored 573 goals in only 752 career contests.

Smith was drafted first overall by the Minnesota North Stars in 1978 after he beat Wayne Gretzky for the scoring title in what was then the OMJHL. Sure, Smith was 20 and Gretzky was 17, but semantics! Also, Smith was no slouch, winning the Calder. Smith is very much a “Hall of Very Good” guy. He had 1,036 points in 1,077 career regular season games, and won a Cup with the Canadiens in 1986.

Famously, Bourque finally won a Cup, then retired. However, he had to leave the Boston Bruins, where he is forever an icon, to do it. So beloved is the defenseman in Boston that Bruins fans loved seeing him hoist the Cup for the Avalanche. Winning the Calder was just the beginning for Bourque, who would win five Norris Trophies with the Bruins after that. Plus that Cup… in Colorado.

Stastny didn’t debut in the NHL until he was 24, but to be fair he had to defect from then-Czechoslovakia to do it. Turns out, he was NHL-ready, as he notched 109 points with the Nordiques as a rookie. Stastny scored the second-most points among NHL players in the 1980s, behind only Wayne Gretzky. Before he retired, he was able to have the chance to represent Slovakia in the 1994 Winter Olympics, and he would end up in the Hall.

Hawerchuk was something of a wunderkind. Now, scoring was inflated in the 1981-82 season (eight players had over 110 points), but it is still impressive that Hawerchuk had 45 goals and 58 assists with the Winnipeg Jets. He was, after all, in his age-18 season. A teenager put up numbers like that! Six times in his first seven seasons Hawerchuk had over 100 points, and he retired with 518 goals and 1,409 points. Sadly, the Hall of Famer died of cancer in 2020. He was 57.

Another “Hall of Very Good” entrant, Larmer was there day in and day out for the Blackhawks. Literally. He won the Calder with 90 points in 80 games in the 1982-83 season. Larmer proceeded to never miss a single game for Chicago for 11 straight seasons. A contract dispute unfortunately kept him from having a chance to break Doug Jarvis’ ironman record (since broken twice), but nobody has ever played more consecutive games for a single NHL franchise than Larmer’s 888.

We mentioned that excelling in the NHL at 18 is rare. We also mentioned goalies often debut late. Well, Barrasso debuted with the Sabres in the NHL a little under six months… after he graduated from high school. Yes, the Sabres drafted Barrasso out of high school, allowed him to skip college, and debuted him as an 18-year-old goalie. And he won the Calder! And the Vezina! Now, Barrasso didn’t go on to become the greatest goalie of all time, but he won two Cups with the Penguins, and in 2023 he was finally elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Barrasso was a teammate of Lemieux’s for those two Cup winners from Pittsburgh, but with all due respect to the goalie, Lemieux played a bigger role in those wins. After all “Super Mario” is one of the five or 10 greatest players of all time. He won the Calder, yes, but also six Art Ross Trophies, three Harts, and two Conn Smythes for those two Cups. Lemieux is the icon of the Penguins franchise, but also perhaps the face of Pittsburgh sports.

For a ninth-round pick, Suter had quite the career. The defenseman debuted with 18 goals and 68 points for what was now the Calgary Flames, and he definitely had his best years there. However, he was no slouch with Chicago, and even had a few solid seasons with San Jose in his mid-30s. Suter would play a whopping 1,145 games on the blue line and notch 844 points in total. Also, if you are assuming modern NHLer Ryan Suter, also a defenseman, is Gary’s son, Ryan is actually the son of Gary’s brother Bob, who never made the NHL, but was on the “Miracle on Ice” team.

Robitaille is one of those players where you remember he was great, but when you look back you realize just how great. Maybe he was overshadowed by being the King who wasn’t Wayne Gretzky, or for being one of the many future Hall of Famers on that Red Wings team that won the Cup in 2002. However, we are talking about a guy who retired with a staggering 668 goals to go with 726 assists. He made eight All-Star Games and was an easy call for the Hall as soon as he was eligible. Oh, and he won the Calder with 45 goals for the Kings, of course.

You could say Niewendyk put the Flames over the top. After all, he debuted in the 1987-88 season, he scored 51 goals, and won the Calder. The next year, he had 51 goals again, but added 10 more in the playoffs in leading Calgary to a Cup. That was followed by two campaigns in a row with 45 goals. Things would slow down, but even when the NHL embraced the neutral-zone trap, he scored 28 goals in 67 games plus 11 more in the playoffs in leading the Stars to a Cup in the 1998-99 season. Yet another Calder winner to make it to the Hall.

Scoring 23 goals in 68 games as a rookie would be great for anybody, but Leetch did it as a defenseman. In fact, that remains the record for goals by a rookie defenseman. He would go on to win the Norris twice, and when Leetch won the Conn Smythe for the Rangers in 1994, he became the first American to do so.

Say this for Makarov: He changed the NHL. When he won the Calder for the Flames in the 1989-90 season, Makarov was… 31 years old. See, he had spent the previous decade playing for the Red Army in the Soviet Union. Finally able to make it to the NHL, Makarov was still a very good player (he is in the Hall of Fame, which is the Hockey Hall, not the NHL Hall), but the league didn’t love the idea of a veteran in his 30s winning Rookie of the Year. Now, thanks to the so-called “Makarov Rule,” a player must be under 26 to win the Calder.

Good thing you don’t have to be under 25 to win the Calder, or Belfour wouldn’t have made the cut. “Eddie the Eagle,” sometimes less charitably called “Crazy Eddie” due to some of his on-ice antics, took a little while to get going. He played junior hockey, then headed to North Dakota where he wowed as a 21-year-old freshman. Then, he spent a couple years playing in the minors with the Saginaw Hawks of the IHL. Finally, the Blackhawks gave him a shot, then gave up on him, then gave him another shot. This time, he won the Calder and the Vezina, leading Chicago no chance but to turn to the mercurial netminder. Belfour would win another Vezina, take home a Stanley Cup, burn a few bridges, and eventually make it to the Hall of Fame.

“The Russian Rocket” dazzled the NHL with his speed, and also his prowess for lighting the lamp. He scored 34 goals as a rookie, but that was in only 65 games. Bure would proceed to score 60 in each of his next two seasons with the Canucks. Eventually, he would make his way to Florida, where he would lead the NHL with 58 and then 59 goals at a time when scoring was at a premium. Though injuries and a somewhat-early retirement would leave him at 702 games played, his 437 goals and 779 points got him into the Hall of Fame. Bure’s was a career built on what he could do at his best, not what he did overall.

You like guys who excel right out of the gate? Selanne jumped to the NHL from Finland and in his rookie year dropped 76 goals with the Winnipeg Jets. That remains a rookie record, and we don’t see anybody beating that, well, ever. Selanne would bounce around a bit, especially for a Hall of Famer, but had his best years with the Anaheim Ducks née Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. That includes leading the NHL in goals once more.

From a guy who scored goals to a guy who was as good at preventing them as anybody. Now, Brodeur did play primarily in the era of the trap, but he also followed his Calder with three Stanley Cups in New Jersey, plus four Vezinas. He also racked up 125 shutouts, most in NHL history.

Forsberg was on a stamp in Sweden before he ever played in the NHL, thanks to his Olympic exploits, but he would go on to be an icon of the Colorado Avalanche. Injuries hindered his career, but he finished with 885 points in 708 games. Although, while he’s an Avalanche legend, technically his first season was the last for the Quebec Nordiques before the move, and also the lockout-shortened campaign.

Back-to-back Swedes! Not much was expected of Alfredsson. He was a sixth-round pick, and it’s not like he was suddenly an elite prospect when he debuted with the Senators. Then, he picked up 26 goals and 35 assists in winning the Calder. Alfredsson would become the captain in Ottawa, spend 17 seasons there, and then move to the Red Wings for one year looking for a Cup. That didn’t happen, but Alfredsson still made it to the Hall of Fame.

Alfredsson is, to date, the last Hall of Famer on this list. Now, a few definite future Hall inductees will appear later in this list, but Berard starts a streak of several Calder winners who won’t ever be inducted. Berard was the first-overall pick in 1995, and he debuted as a teenage defenseman for the Islanders. Things started promisingly, with 48 points in his rookie campaign. Unfortunately, Berard suffered a serious eye injury that hindered his career, but he was able to return and continue playing.

The Boston Bruins had two top-eight picks in the 1997 NHL Draft. Samsonov was the one drafted eighth, and he won the Calder with 22 goals and 25 assists in a down year for rookies. However, the Russian would score over 20 goals the next year, and had a couple 29-goals campaigns in Boston before bouncing around a bit. He would finish with 235 goals in 888 games, a good, but unremarkable, player. And yet, Samsonov was the best rookie for the Bruins over the guy they took first overall. In fact, that guy only managed seven points as a rookie. Some dude named Joe Thornton? Whatever happened to him?

Drury pulled off a nice double. First, as a senior at Boston University he won the Hobey Baker, the Heisman of college hockey. Then, as a rookie for the Avalanche he won the Calder. From the best player in college hockey to the best rookie in the NHL. Now, Drury never played in an All-Star Game, but he was consistently a 20-goal, 60-point player.

Gomez won a Calder, and a Cup, with the Devils in 2000. It was the first of two Cups he won with the Devils. While Gomez was very good, if not great, in New Jersey, he (and Drury) were memorably given massive deals by the Rangers. They didn’t work out, and Gomez only spent two seasons in New York before becoming a journeyman.

Drafted in 1994, it took Nabokov some time to make the NHL. In fact, he wasn’t a regular NHL player for the San Jose Sharks until the 2000-01 season, when he was 25. He also posted a 2.19 GAA and .915 save percentage and won the Calder. Nabokov had some good years in San Jose, but also once famously sat out an entire NHL season rather than play for the Islanders, who claimed him off waivers.

The brief life of the Atlanta Thrashers barely made an impact on NHL history. One name in the record books, though, is Heatley, who won the Calder. The Wisconsin Badger scored 26 goals and tallied 41 assists as a rookie, which he followed with 41 goals the next year, making him look like a future star in Atlanta. Then, tragically, Heatley was in a car accident that severely injured him and killed his teammate Dan Snyder. Heatley would be traded to Ottawa, where he notched two 50-goal seasons. The Thrashers would move to Winnipeg.

Most people figured Henrik Zetterberg of the Red Wings would win the Calder in 2003. Then, the NHL voters gave the award to… a defense-first defensemen? In a puzzling choice, Jackman, a defenseman for the Blues, won. He had 19 points and 190 penalty minutes. It’s hard to help your defense when you are in the box that much. Jackman did play in 876 games in the NHL, but never as anything more than depth on the blue line.

Sometimes, a goalie has one great year. The bounces go their way, and they have a career campaign. Rarely, that happens to a rookie, but that was the case for Raycroft. In his rookie season, he finished with a 2.05 GAA and .926 save percentage for the Bruins. When Raycroft retired in 2012, he had a career 2.89 ERA and .900 save percentage.

Finally, a guy who will eventually be in the Hall of Fame. The only question is if whether or not Ovechkin will have the most goals in NHL history when he’s inducted. After all, he’s already second behind Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin debuted after the lockout-lost season and immediately emerged as a star. In his first campaign with the Capitals, Ovi had 52 goals, including that one highlight-reel tally that will forever be remembered.

Malkin was picked right behind Ovechkin, but waited a year to come over from Russia. When he did, he followed in his countrymate’s footsteps. As the 1A to Sidney Crosby for the Pittsburgh Penguins, “Geno” began his Hall of Fame career with a Calder. Then, he would add two Art Ross Trophies, a Hart, and a Conn Smythe along the way. By the way, “Sid the Kid” didn’t win a Calder himself; he finished behind Ovechkin.

Crosby and Malkin joined forces in Pittsburgh, while Kane and Jonathan Toews joined forces to save another moribund franchise in Chicago. Though undersized, Kane’s shiftiness has made him a high-level scorer. As a rookie, he managed 21 goals and 51 assists in his age-19 season. He has his one campaign where he won an Art Ross and a Hart, but also three Cups. His time in Chicago is now over as the franchise reboots, but he managed over 1,000 points in over 1,000 games with the team.

Mason sticks out among post-lockout winners of the Calder. One, he’s the only goalie. Two, he is as of this writing the only one not still active in the NHL. After posting a 2.29 GAA and .916 save percentage with the Blue Jackets, Mason fell off. This wasn’t a Raycroft situation, as he had a couple other good seasons, though with Philadelphia. He was just a pretty good goalie who had few really good seasons.

At 6’8’’, Myers cuts a striking figure on the ice. As a rookie with the Sabres, he had 11 goals and 37 assists. Impressive for a defenseman, but also still career highs for Myers. Through his thirties, he’s been more of a 20-point guy who scores a goal or two a year, but he has a chance to play over 1,000 games in his career.

Skinner is now a Sabre, though he started with the Hurricanes. As a rookie, he became the youngest player to make the All-Star Game. He also won the Calder with a 31-goal campaign. While he rarely racks up many assists, Skinner has regularly been good for at least 30 goals a season, with one 40-goal campaign to date.

Well, the Avalanche named Landeskog their captain when he wasn’t even 20, which made him the youngest captain ever at that time. That was built off the strength of a rookie season where he notched 52 points. The rebuild of the Avalanche is built more on two names later on this list, plus Mikko Rantanen, but Landeskog has provided leadership and secondary scoring when healthy. The problem, unfortunately, is that in recent years he’s really had trouble staying healthy.

Huberdeau seems headed to a “Hall of Very Good” career, but he’s had some impressive campaigns. His rookie year was shortened by another lockout, but he had 31 points in 48 games for the Panthers. Huberdeau would build and build until he had 115 points in his last year with the Florida franchise before he was dealt to Calgary. That trade brought Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers, which they are surely happy about.

Landeskog has been Colorado’s captain, but MacKinnon has been the franchise’s lodestone. Drafted first overall, MacKinnon debuted as an 18-year-old. As we have noted before, it’s hard to be a productive teenager in the NHL. Well, MacKinnon notched 24 goals and 39 assists. While he has had some issues staying healthy as well, when you can tally 111 points in 71 games, it tends to still work out.

Back-to-back first-overall picks that immediately paid off with Calders. Also, another Panther. Ekblad registered 15 goals as a rookie defenseman, which is impressive. He’s routinely played a lot of minutes, tallied a lot of shots, and scored double-digit goals for the franchise. Will Ekblad ever win a Norris? Probably not, but if he’s your best defenseman you are doing alright.

After five teenaged winners in a row, we have a guy who waited a minute before debuting. Panarin actually went undrafted, and so he began his professional career in Russia’s KHL, where he emerged as a star. After signing a deal with the Blackhawks, he scored 30 goals and had 77 points, winning the Calder at 24. Since then, he’s turned himself into a player who averages over a point per game, though he has been starring for the Rangers for a few years now.

Matthews had to carry the way of being the proverbial “prince who was promised” of American hockey. He’s the kid who grew up in Arizona rooting for Gary Bettman’s pet project the Coyotes and was considered one of the better first-overall pick prospects in a bit. Then, an iconic franchise, the Toronto Maple Leafs, drafted him. Matthews went ahead and scored four goals in his first NHL game. That was on his way to 40 goals, a threshold he has crossed a few times already. Once, he even had 60 in a season, his second year in a row leading the NHL.

Remember when all those Islanders were winning the Calder (and then winning the Cup)? Barzal is another Islander to join the list of Calder winners. He actually went back to juniors for seasoning after being drafted, but that seems reasonable given how it turned out. After all, the center debuted with 85 points as a rookie. Since then, he’s fallen just behind the point-per-game pace, and had some injuries, but he’s still a star for the Islanders.

Expectations were high for Pettersson when he debuted with a Canucks franchise in need of a boost. After being drafted, he had returned to Sweden, when he had one of the best-ever seasons by a teenager in the SHL. Turns out he could handle the NHL as well. Pettersson had 28 goals and 38 assists in winning the Calder, and has become a scoring machine for a franchise that has failed to put enough talent around him.

Makar is the last piece of that Avalanche puzzle. There were murmurs when they drafted the defenseman fourth overall. He was playing his junior hockey in the AJHL, and he was only the second player ever drafted out of that league in the first round. Makar went to college at UMass, but in his freshman year he did not wow. The murmurs continued. Then, he exploded in his sophomore season, and even saw postseason time for the Avalanche. When he had his proper rookie campaign, Makar tallied 50 points in 57 games. The murmurs ended. Now, Makar also has a Conn Smythe, a Norris, and some consider him the best defenseman in the NHL.

“Just you wait until Kaprizov comes over from the KHL,” the Wild brass would say. “We’re still waiting,” NHL fans would say. Finally, Kaprizov did come over, at the age of 23 and in the middle of the 2020-21 season. He only was able to play in 55 games…and still got 99 out of 100 first-place votes for the Calder. That’s what happens when you score 27 goals and add 24 assists in 55 games. Since then, Kaprizov has added a couple 40-goal seasons. The Russian is one of the best players in the NHL, and was totally worth the wait.

As with Makar, there were some questioning Steve Yzerman when he drafted Seider sixth for the Red Wings. He was a defensemen out of Germany, not an elite country for hockey talent. The Red Wings let him figure things out, and he would spend a season in the AHL and a season in Sweden before making his NHL debut. The seasoning paid off, as he tallied 50 points from the blue line and won the Calder.

The Michigan Wolverines dominated the 2021 NHL Draft, with three players going in the top five. All three would return to college, and be joined by fourth-overall pick Luke Hughes, before making the move to the NHL. Beniers, drafted second overall, was the first player ever taken by the Seattle Kraken. So far, the “face of the franchise” thing has worked out, as the center had 24 goals and 33 assists as a rookie.