The first award of the night went to Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks. He was awarded the Calder Trophy as the top rookie in the NHL.
Pettersson, a 20-year-old center, finished his first NHL season with a Canucks rookie-record 66 points (28 goals, 38 assists) in 71 games, passing Pavel Bure (1991-92) and Ivan Hlinka (1981-82), who each had 60 points.
The other finalists were Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues and Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabres. Binnington, 25, made his first NHL start Jan. 7 and went 24-5-1 with a 1.89 goals-against average, a .927 save percentage and five shutouts in 32 games to help the Blues return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs following a one-season absence. Dahlin, 19, led rookie defensemen in points (44), assists (35) and power-play points (20), and finished second in goals (nine) and average ice time (21:09) behind Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars, who had 12 goals and averaged 23:07 of ice time.
The award was presented by Trevor Gretzky, Alexa Lemieux and Jesserae Robitaille, the sons and daughter of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Luc Robitaille.
It followed a great opening by host Keenan Thompson and friends.
You knew we couldn't have an NHL Awards show without Gritty, who appeared in the intro of the show with Thompson, who found himself in a Stanley Cup Final-themed Facetime session with peanut-butter eating/broken-hearted Bruins fan John Krasinski, super pumped-up Blues fan Jenna Fischer and Blues superfan Laila Anderson.
Thompson had a good line in his monologue, telling the crowd "I'm not one of the Subbans," and got some laughs with some shots at Sidney Crosby, John Tavares, Brent Burns and Joe Thornoton. He even questioned why the Blues used "Gloria" as their theme song, instead of, well, you know, the Blues.
It was a great start to what looks like is going to be a fun night in Vegas.