Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog had a tremendous season and did a lot to earn the 2011-12 Calder Trophy. However, as the Edmonton Journal reported, Landeskog took a moment to try and pump up the two other finalists, Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and New Jersey’s Adam Henrique, after winning the award.
“If Ryan hadn’t got hurt (two shoulder injuries) I am sure he would have won this,” said Landeskog. “And if they had counted the playoffs, I feel Adam (three game-winners, two in overtime) would have won.”
Nugent-Hopkins, who is a friend of Landeskog, said that the Calder Trophy winner was just being humble.
“I heard it was a pretty big landslide,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “As the season was wearing on, I heard Landeskog’s name a lot. I kind of expected he would win.”
Landeskog won by a clean margin, but it’s hard to call it a landslide victory. He had 1,383 points to Nugent-Hopkins’ 1,001 in the hockey writer’s vote.
Maybe there’s some truth to what Landeskog said, but then again, maybe not. Landeskog finished third out of the finalists in points per game, but he was also a far more physical player. On top of that, he led all rookies in takeaways and got regular minutes during shorthanded situations. In short, Landeskog helped the Colorado Avalanche in a lot of different ways and he’s deserving of recognition.