Jerome Miron – USA TODAY Sports
When the Calder Trophy finalists for the 2013 season were announced on Monday, there was one name that was surprisingly left off the list. The Edmonton Oilers’ Nail Yakupov, who led all rookies with 17 goals, was not named as a finalist and that is a glaring omission on the league’s part. For the sake of comparison, Yakupov managed just one less goal than fellow Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (a Calder finalist last season) did during his rookie season (2011-12), and Yakupov did so in 14 fewer games.
Yakupov not only finished first among rookies in goal scoring, but also led the Oilers in that category and finished fourth on the team in points. He had a strong first month, a bit of a lull in the middle of the season and finished incredibly strong. That makes him no different than the three finalists for the award, which makes his omission that much more puzzling. Yakupov actually played some of his best hockey of the season in the final month, scoring 11 goals and adding four assists. Six of those goals came in the final three games of the season, and it almost seems like the shortened season worked against him when it came to Calder candidacy.
As the top pick in the 2012 draft, Yakupov entered this season with a lot to live up to. He showed he can handle playing at the top level, and the Oilers can look forward to many more productive seasons from him. While awards voting in a shortened season can’t be easy, the league really did a poor job when it came to narrowing down its top rookies this season.
Jonathan Katje is an NHL senior writer for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter or add him to your circles on Google Plus.
