5 players who deserve honorable mentions for the Calder Trophy
The NHL's rookie class was incredibly deep this season, so it's only natural that a slew of phenoms would be left out when the three Calder Trophy finalists were announced Thursday.
Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, and Zach Werenski all deserve their nominations, but many of their contemporaries could also be acknowledged for having impressive inaugural campaigns.
Here are five rookies who might have played well enough to be finalists in any other year:
William Nylander
Matthews' teammate had himself a terrific first full campaign in the NHL, scoring 22 goals and adding 39 assists while missing only one game in the regular season.
Nylander played 22 NHL games last season, three shy of the mark that would have disqualified him for the award in 2016-17, but that shouldn't diminish what he accomplished.
The 20-year-old tied for third among rookies in points; placed second among all Leafs in helpers, fourth on the team in goals, and tied for third in points; and set a franchise rookie record with a 12-game point streak in March.
Mitch Marner
The Leafs showed off a trio of talented rookie centers this season.
Marner led all rookies as well as the entire Leafs squad with 42 assists - setting a franchise rookie mark of his own with his 41st.
The 19-year-old tied Nylander for third on the rookie points list with 61, and he did it in four fewer games.
Matt Murray
Many forget that the Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender was eligible for this award, thanks to the league's rule that stipulates a player who suited up in 25 or fewer games in any preceding season is still considered a rookie.
Murray played 13 regular-season games for the Penguins last season before usurping Marc-Andre Fleury as the starter and helping Pittsburgh win the Stanley Cup.
He retained the No. 1 role when healthy this season, going 32-10-4 with a 2.41 GAA and a .923 save percentage. Murray certainly had some help in front of him, but the 22-year-old finished in the top 10 in the league in wins while making 49 appearances.
Sebastian Aho
Only Matthews and Laine scored more goals than Aho among rookies this season.
The Carolina Hurricanes winger notched 24 goals and finished fifth in the class with 49 points while playing every game.
Those totals ranked him second on the club behind Jeff Skinner in both categories - an impressive feat for the 19-year-old, despite the Hurricanes' less than high-powered offense.
Mikko Rantanen
The Colorado Avalanche were by far the worst team in the NHL in 2016-17, but Rantanen was one of the club's lone bright spots.
He led Colorado and finished in a tie for fifth among rookies with 20 goals, and although he only posted 38 points, that was good enough for third on the team, five points ahead of Gabriel Landeskog.
The Avalanche may end up trading Landeskog and Matt Duchene at some point, but the 10th overall pick in 2015 should be a significant piece of the club's core for years to come.
(Photos courtesy: Action Images)