Calder Memorial Trophy
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| Award details | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Given for | Rookie of the Year in the National Hockey League |
| History | |
| First award | 1936–37 NHL season |
| Most recent | Artemi Panarin |
The Calder Memorial Trophy is an annual award given "to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the National Hockey League (NHL)." It is named after Frank Calder, the first president of the NHL. Serving as the NHL's Rookie of the Year award, this version of the trophy has been awarded since its creation for the 1936–37 NHL season. The voting is conducted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association at the conclusion of each regular season to determine the winner.
The Calder Memorial Trophy is named in honour of Frank Calder, the former President of the National Hockey League (NHL) from its inception in 1917 to his death in 1943. Although Rookie of the Year honors were handed out beginning in 1932–33, the Calder Trophy was first presented at the conclusion of the 1936–37 NHL season. After Calder's death in 1943 the trophy was renamed the Calder Memorial Trophy.
In 1990, Sergei Makarov of the Calgary Flames became the oldest player, at age 31, to win the trophy, even though he had played for HC CSKA Moscow (the "Red Army" team) in the Soviet Union. After that season, the rules for awarding the Calder were amended so that players could only be eligible if they were under 26 years old by September 15 of their rookie season.
To be eligible for the award, a player cannot have played any more than 25 regular season games previously in any single season, nor have played in more than six regular season games in each of two separate preceding seasons in any major professional league. The latter fact was perhaps most prominent when in the 1979–80 season, first-year phenom Wayne Gretzky was not eligible to win the Calder Trophy despite scoring 137 points (the previous rookie record at the time being 95), because he had played a full season the previous year in the World Hockey Association. In 1991, goaltender Ed Belfour won the Calder having previously appeared in 32 games with the Chicago Blackhawks over the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. Belfour was eligible for the award because nine of those appearances came during the 1990 Stanley Cup playoffs, and the other 23 appearances were made during the 1988-89 season. The nine playoff games did not count towards the regular season eligibility requirements. In 2010–11, Logan Couture was eligible for the Calder Trophy despite having played in 40 previous games (25 in the regular season and 15 in the playoffs, both in 2009–10), while Alex Pietrangelo was ineligible despite having played only 17 previous games (eight in 2008–09 and nine in 2009–10, both times sent back to juniors).
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