(Photo by Puffycoombes)
On March 6, the Bruins received the crushing news that Charlie McAvoy would be out for the remainder of the regular season with an MCL sprain. While the Bruins’ defensive phenom is back skating with the team, he (apparently) lost significant ground in his pursuit of the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s best rookie.
ESPN’s NHL Trophy Tracker (which, by the way, doesn’t project for the MVP, the most important award in the sports world--you suck ESPN) is reporting that Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders center, is now first in the running for ROTY. Call me a homer (@Felger), but I would be disgusted if Barzal won the Calder over McAvoy for several reasons.
McAvoy has had an unbelievable impact on the Bruins this year. A rookie doesn’t usually step up and play on the first d-pair with one of the NHL’s most dominant defensive forces--if you have a first-year playing as a top-two defenseman, it means one of two things: Either the team has no talent on the back end, or the rook is one helluva player. Boston’s situation is clearly the latter; McAvoy has actually helped Chara put up a bounce-back season after many wrote him off as too far past his prime.
McAvoy is also logging upwards of 22 minutes per night, sporting a +26 plus/minus, and demonstrating an exceptional ability to play on both sides of the puck. In today’s NHL, a defenseman who can rush the puck is a hot commodity, and the Bruins have one who’s only in his rookie season.
What’s Barzal doing? He’s centering the second line on a garbage New York Islanders team, playing five fewer minutes per game than McAvoy and recording an even 0 plus/minus. Let me highlight just how bad this team has been: With 72 points, the Islanders are sitting at the very bottom of the Eastern Conference, outpaced by only the Coyotes and Canucks for the worst record in the NHL. His point output has undoubtedly been impressive (76 points through 75 games), but that’s about the only area in which he beats McAvoy. He’s filling a less significant role on an underachieving squad, but, as I mentioned in a previous article, the NHL is big on sexy statistics (points, goals, etc.), so he’s being overrated. It’s easy to dominate on a crappy team; just ask Devin Booker.
Here’s the simple fact: McAvoy is a major reason that the Bruins are vying for the President’s Trophy, and people (like the writers at ESPN) don’t recognize it. Barzal has the points, but that’s it. McAvoy is a superior all-around player with a better defensive presence, hockey IQ, and greater influence on the game.
(Stats courtesy of Hockey Reference)
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