Cale Makar beats out Canucks rookie Quinn Hughes for Calder Trophy

Despite having one of the finest seasons ever by a first-year defenceman, Canucks rookie Quinn Hughes has finished as a runner up to Colorado’s Cale Makar for the Calder Trophy.

With all due respect to Chicago’s Dominik Kubalik, this year’s Calder Trophy race was a two-horse race between Hughes and Makar.

Makar received 116 first-place votes to 53 for Hughes.

First-place votes for the Calder Trophy:
Makar (#Avs): 116
Hughes (#Canucks): 53
Fox (#NYRangers): 1 pic.twitter.com/H7pVDX1ZRF

— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) September 21, 2020

Hughes won the rookie scoring race this season with 53 points in 68 games. Makar had three points fewer than Hughes, but played 11 fewer games due to injury.

This is the third time in as many years that the Canucks have had a player nominated for the Calder — the first time any team has done that since the New York Rangers had three straight finalists from 1969 to 1971. Brock Boeser finished as a runner-up to Mathew Barzal in 2018, while Elias Pettersson took home the hardware last year.

In lieu of the usual NHL Awards show in Las Vegas, the league named the winners for the Calder Trophy, Hart Trophy, Norris Trophy, Vezina Trophy, and Ted Lindsay Award in a made-for-television show from Edmonton this evening.

Wayne Gretzky announced the winner for the Calder, which is ironic because it’s one of the few awards The Great One never won, because he was ineligible.

“One of the greatest things about our game is the new young players that we have coming into our sport each and every year,” said Gretzky before announcing the winner. “So many great, promising players have won this award and have gone on to have great careers and win Stanley Cups.”