Canucks: Quinn Hughes nominated for the Calder Trophy this season

Vancouver Canucks’ superstar rookie defenseman Quinn Hughes has been nominated as a Calder Trophy finalist. He is the third consecutive Canuck to do it.

This is the Vancouver Canucks third player nominated for the Calder Trophy in three years, there has not been a team to have a player nominated three years in a row during the salary cap era.

The Pittsburgh Penguins had three nominations in two years back in 05-06 and 06-07. The Chicago Blackhawks also had three nominations in 07-08 and 08-09. We all know what happened to these franchises a few years after.

Three consecutive years of Calder nominations show that the development curve of the franchise is doing something right. For the most part, the team has made key picks truly count.

Quinn Hughes would have broken more Canucks records similar to what Elias Pettersson accomplished last year. Hughes was on pace for a record-breaking 64 points when the season came to an end, which would have broken the previous defenseman record of 63 set by Doug Lidster in 1996-87.

Even in the shortened season, Hughes was able to break the record for most assists by a rookie Canucks defenseman with 45 beating out Dale Tallon who had 42.

It will be hard for the young phenom to beat out Cale Makar and his goal-scoring prowess. Only three fewer points in ten fewer games played is a pretty remarkable rookie campaign for Makar. We need to remember too that Hughes is an entire year younger than Maker, its not quite a Jordan Binnington age gap but that year of development can’t be understated and I would hope that the “experts” would agree.

All of the fans know who they think should win the Calder, and that’s valid because of the fact that Hughes has changed the way they think of how a defenseman should play. It’s a growing game, and Hughes is the future of defense in Vancouver and across the entire NHL landscape.