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Tortorella claims Jack Adams Award over Babcock, McLellan (video)

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Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella is awarded the 2017 Jack Adams Award for the league's most outstanding head coach.

John Tortorella has won the Jack Adams Award as the league’s most outstanding coach for the second time in his career.

Torts beat out Todd McLellan of the Edmonton Oilers and Mike Babcock of the Toronto Maple Leafs, after helping guide the Columbus Blue Jackets to a franchise record 50 wins and 108 points.

That’s quite an improvement from their 76-point campaign the previous season.

The Blue Jackets finished third in the Metropolitan Division this season, earning a playoff berth.

The interesting thing about Tortorella being named the Jack Adams award winner is that he was the most likely coach to be fired first during the season, according to the oddsmakers in October.

Obviously, that didn’t happen, as the Blue Jackets gained strength from a 16-game winning streak -- the second-longest single season winning streak in NHL history behind the Penguins’ 17-game run in 1992-93 -- and were in contention for a hyper competitive Metropolitan Division until late in the season.

The award is selected by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.

Here is how the voting turned out:

Points: (1st-2nd-3rd)

1. John Tortorella, CBJ 267 (39-19-15)
2. Mike Babcock, TOR 182 (24-15-17)
3. Todd McLellan, EDM 181 (18-24-19)
4. Joel Quenneville, CHI 103 (12-12-7)
5. Barry Trotz, WSH 63 (6-8-9)
6. Glen Gulutzan, CGY 49 (2-8-15)
7. Guy Boucher, OTT 44 (1-10-9)
8. Mike Sullivan, PIT 25 (3-2-4)
9. Bruce Boudreau, MIN 22 (0-5-7)
10. Jon Cooper, TBL 3 (0-1-0)
Claude Julien, MTL 3 (0-1-0)
12. Randy Carlyle, ANA 2 (0-0-2)
13. Bill Peters, CAR 1 (0-0-1)