Calder Power Ranking: Matvei Michkov and Logan Stankoven lead the way

The Calder Memorial Trophy is usually won in a landslide. 

Most recent winners have racked up 95-plus percent of the first-place vote, but there have been some exceptions. Connor Bedard versus Brock Faber, Cale Makar versus Quinn Hughes, and the most tightly competed one, Artemi Panarin, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Connor McDavid back in 2016. 

So far, this Calder race looks even more competitive than 2016's, with no fewer than four candidates for the top spot. Logan Stankoven and Matvei Michkov lead the way at this stage, but it's only by the slimmest of margins. Lane Hutson is playing big minutes and creating offence, Macklin Celebrini is nearing a return, and Dustin Wolf is off to a strong start. 

How do we rank this rookie class, and what makes these rookies so successful? Let's find out in the first edition our new monthly feature. 

Matvei Michkov had all sorts of excuses to justify a slow start to his NHL career. Moving from Sochi to Philadelphia represents one of the largest cultural shifts imaginable, especially for a teenager. Managing massive expectations. Adjusting to the incredible speed, skill, and physicality of the NHL. But instead of capitulating to those excuses, the Russian winger has been the best rookie in the game through the first month of the season.

Through 10 games, Michkov has delivered in several ways. He’s tallied four goals and nine points. No freshman forward has seen more ice time. He leads all first-year skaters in goals, power-play goals and power-play points. He’s been dynamic while the Flyers are up a man –  working the point and slinging shots on goal with purpose. Confidence has been key in his early evolution as he’s maintained the trust of John Tortorella by walking a fine line between risky and creative.

We’re still waiting for the teenager to start asserting himself at even strength consistently, but for all the potential blockades in front of him, Michkov has impressed greatly. 

The Stars are lining up for Logan Stankoven to have an exceptional season. Slotting next to Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz and on the team’s first power play unit, Stankoven will receive plenty of quality puck touches, ice time, and scoring opportunities. He has the skill to finish these chances, the playmaking ability to create just as many for others, and the experience to sustain his production. Stankoven is technically a rookie, but he already has 45 NHL games under his belt coming into the season. That’s significantly more than others on this list. Playing for a contending Dallas team, he’s also in a much better environment than most. In the end, that may be the deciding factor.

Lane Hutson has only played a few games in the NHL, but he’s already making his mark. He has beaten more than a couple of the league’s stars one-on-one, accumulated a ton of minutes, and scored at an impressive rate for a rookie defenceman. The Canadiens are rapidly learning to take advantage of his many talents at five-on-five, but his Calder push hinges on his ability to win the first power play spot from Mike Matheson. He may very well be the best quarterback of the two, but Martin St-Louis’ vote of confidence still goes to his veteran at the moment.

It’s only been one game, but Macklin Celebrini was so good in that debut that he checks in at No. 4 on this list. 

Stepping into the NHL at 18 with the incredible hype that the 2024 first-overall pick did is not easy to navigate. Not only did Celebrini score a pretty goal in his debut, but he set up another. Both coming at even strength and all within the first 20 minutes of game action. Sure, he was absolutely dominated in the faceoff dot, the team lost the game, and he hasn’t played since. But the impact was real and the effects of his time on the IR have been palpable. He already means so much to the franchise. 

One month into the season the Calgary Flames find themselves in a playoff spot. It wasn’t supposed to start this way. Calgary has been slowly but surely retooling and rebuilding on the fly answer expected to challenge for a lottery pick. And they still might. But not if Dustin Wolf keeps this up.

The rookie netminder has been a revelation for the Flames early on. With three wins in four starts, while posting a .924 save percentage, the 23-year-old is making an early case to be the first masked man to win the Calder trophy since Steve Mason accomplished the feat 16 years ago. 

The New York Islanders have struggled to score to start the season. The puck isn’t favouring most of their top offensive players, except for Maxim Tsyplakov. A few bounces here and there have helped push him up the Islanders’ scoring leaderboard. The ex-KHLer's North-South style of game seems to fit the Islanders well and his catch-and-release wrist-shot gives him some upside as a scorer. As long as he continues to drive the net, motor up and down the ice, and find space in the slot, he will earn his share of points.

Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic have both underperformed for the Pittsburgh Penguins this season, posting save percentages far below the 0.900 mark.  Thankfully, Joel Blomqvist seems to be stepping up. In five first starts in the NHL, he has accumulated a 0.911 save percentage. Blomqvist is also playing behind one of the most permissive defences in the league, but his strong AHL performances last season gives us hope that he will be able to maintain these exceptional numbers and keep the Penguins afloat.

The production has yet to kick in for Cutter Gauthier early in his rookie campaign, but it hasn’t been for a lack of trying. On a per-60 basis, the 20-year-old sits 10th in the league for 5-on-5 shot attempts. That puts him firmly among some of the very best volume shooters and high-end finishers in the game. We can argue over the shot selection, but for a youngster to be slinging shots toward the net with such ferocity is never a bad thing. Ducks fans are hoping once the one goal squeaks in, the floodgates will open. 

Jack Thompson is benefitting from a less-than-deep San Jose Sharks blue line to mine opportunities he likely wouldn’t get elsewhere. To his credit, though, he’s making good on them.

Through five games this season, the 22-year-old has found his way onto the club’s top power play unit, while averaging over 17 minutes per night. The result has been three power-play assists and several grade-A chances as he looks to cash in on his first NHL goal. On a team that has been surrendering shots at an alarming rate, the club has kept level while Thompson has been on the ice. It’s been a smart start for the 2020 third-round pick. 

Marco Kasper is far from a front-runner for the Calder, but he deserves a mention here. He lined up some great preseason games, creating multiple scoring chances, winning his battles, and filling the Red Wings highlight-reel. These performances convinced the Red Wings brass to slot them in their lineup sooner than they may have planned. Now playing next to Jonatan Berggren and Vladimir Tarasenko, two offensive drivers with some defensive holes, Kasper may have to play more of a shutdown game, but he's a good enough playmaker to continue scoring the occasional point.