Philadelphia Flyers: The Calder Case for Ghost

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere was named a finalists for the Calder trophy as the NHL’s best rookie. Here’s why he deserves to win.

Yesterday’s announcement was basically a formality. To no one’s surprise, the NHL named the three finalists for the Calder trophy as the league’s best rookie, and they were Artemi Panarin, Connor McDavid, and the Philadelphia Flyers’ own Shayne Gostisbehere. With the nomination, “Ghost” has a chance to be the first ever Flyers Calder trophy winner, although they’ve come close many times before.

Each player has an interesting and different case as to why they deserve the award. Starting with Connor McDavid, he was the overwhelming favorite at the beginning of the season. That’s to be expected for the most hyped prospect since Sidney Crosby. McDavid lived up to those expectations, averaging better than a point per game for the season. Even more impressive, since returning from injury at the beginning of February, Connor McDavid was 4th in the entire in the NHL in points.

But that’s also the problem. McDavid only played 45 total games this season. If the award was for the best rookie judged subjectively and projected into the future, McDavid is the clear choice. I don’t think that’s what the award is about. It should be awarded to the rookie who had the best season. Judged this way, McDavid should not win the award.

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On to candidate number 2, Artemi Panarin. Panarin has been the odds on favorite for the award since the Fall. He’s been riding shotgun with Patrick Kane all season, and both players had great seasons. On the final count, Patrick Kane ran away with the scoring title at 106 points, while Panarin snuck into the NHL top-10 scorers with 77 total points.

The two main strikes against Panarin are the Patrick Kane effect, and his age. Starting with Kane effect, some may say his numbers are inflated by playing with the NHL’s best player this season. Of course the inverse may also apply, and Kane may have had such a great season because he had a player like Panarin by his side.

Second is Panarin’s age. Panarin is 24 years old, and he has been playing top tier pro hockey in the KHL for a handful of seasons. Nevertheless, Panarin qualifies under the rules, and 24 isn’t ancient. This argument shouldn’t preclude Panarin from winning the award.

Panarin has a convincing Calder trophy case, but Ghost’s is just better. While Panarin had a great season, Ghost’s season was both historically noteworthy and transformative to his team.

Since joining the Philadelphia Flyers in mid-November, Ghost has racked up many records. We recounted many of them here, both Flyers franchise records and league records.

The highlights of that list on the league-wide scale include longest point streak by a rookie defenseman (which was also the longest point streak by any NHL defenseman, period, in 20 years) and the most overtime goals by a rookie. The new 3v3 overtime format may be a factor in the latter, but that is the benefit of being one of the best 3v3 players in the NHL as a rookie. Perhaps the best way to sum up Ghost’s production is that, at 0.72 points per game, he had the best points per game of any NHL rookie defenseman since a 24 year old Vladimir Malakhov in 1993.

Second, Ghost had a dramatic effect on turning around his teams’ hopes. When Ghost was called up, the Flyers seemed to be sinking towards contention for the #1 draft pick. Instead, it took Ghost all of 5 games before he scored an overtime game winner goal and injected some energy into the team. Ghost finished the season with 17 goals, 5 of which were game winners. Each of his first 14 goals either tied or won the game. That’s impact.

Furthermore, Ghost immediately became a centerpiece of the Flyers power play. His skating and shot invigorated the Flyers power play, and the Flyers power play largely revolved established star Claude Giroux and the rookie from then on.

In the end, both Artemi Panarin and Shayne Gostisbehere had fantastic rookie seasons. A top-10 scoring season is spectacular for any rookie, but Ghost’s rookie season was truly a rare thing. It is nearly unprecedented for a rookie to be so productive, and such a factor in winning games for a previously-languishing team. For these reasons, Ghost deserves to be the first Philadelphia Flyers player to win the Calder trophy.

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