Trophy Tracker: Calder

To mark the halfway point of the 2020-21 regular season, NHL.com is running its second installment of the Trophy Tracker series. Today, we look at the race for the Calder Trophy, given annually to the best rookie in the NHL as selected in a poll by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Kirill Kaprizov has been a tour de force for the Minnesota Wild from the moment he arrived in the United States from his native Russia to begin training in December.
The 23-year-old, signed to a two-year, entry-level contract by Minnesota on July 13, leads NHL rookies with 10 goals, 24 points and 22 even-strength points in 26 games this season.
"He's exceeded my expectations," Wild general manager Bill Guerin told SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. "This is the best league in the world, and a lot of times it takes an adjustment period, but he's been fantastic. He's just kind of jumped right in and played his game. He's got an oxygen tank on, is in great shape, and wants to play a ton of minutes.
"If you watch him closely, he competes on every loose puck, goes to the hard areas, and has been really fun to watch him."

Kaprizov is the favorite to win the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year, according to a panel of 17 NHL.com writers, receiving 16 first-place votes and 84 points in the poll. He was third with 51 points (five first-place votes) in NHL.com's preseason poll in January.
Ottawa Senators forward
Tim Stutzle
is second in the poll with 37 points, followed by Chicago Blackhawks goalie Kevin Lankinen with 32 points (one first-place vote), Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen with 32 points and Washington Capitals goalie Vitek Vanecek with 16 points.
It's the first time in the history of NHL.com's Trophy Tracker series that three goalies are among the top five in voting for the Calder Trophy.
Stutzle is second among NHL rookies with 18 points (six goals, 12 assists), including five goals on the road, in 29 games. Stutzle missed three games in January but was named the NHL Rookie of the Month in February after scoring 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in 14 games.
"This guy is so talented and so fast," Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot said of Stutzle. "He loves playing the game and loves to learn. We talk a lot on and off the ice about different plays and the way he thinks the game is different than anybody else."
Kaprizov, selected in the fifth round (No. 135) of the 2015 NHL Draft, required the fewest games by a rookie to score 20 career regular-season points with the Wild. He scored three goals in a 4-0 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Friday to become the second rookie in Wild history to score a hat trick, joining Justin Fontaine on Jan. 9, 2014.
"He's the type of player we haven't had here in the long time," Guerin said. "We want to shed that reputation that we have. We want to be exciting and want our fans to come out and enjoy watching an up-tempo team play, aggressive and offensively, so [Kaprizov] fits in and is helping us transform."
Kaprizov joined the Wild after leading the Kontinental Hockey League in goals (33 and 30) each of the past two seasons with CSKA Moscow and scored nine points (five goals, four assists) in six games to help Olympic Athletes from Russia win the gold medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.
The excitement began in the season opener when Kaprizov scored the game-winning goal in overtime of a 4-3 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 14. He assisted on the game-winning goal by Marcus Johansson two nights later in another 4-3 overtime victory against the Kings, giving him four points (one goal, three assists) through his first two NHL games.
The Wild are second in the Honda West Division with 35 points.
"The transition has [gone] very well," Kaprizov said through an interpreter. "But overall, I think the team's gotten into a good rhythm and myself personally, I've also gotten into to a pretty good rhythm."
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis): Kirill Kaprizov, Wild, 84 points (16 first-place votes); Tim Stutzle, Senators, 37 points; Kevin Lankinen, Blackhawks, 32 points (one first-place vote); Kaapo Kahkonen, Wild, 32 points; Vitek Vanecek, Capitals, 16 points; Ty Smith, New Jersey Devils, 14 points; Pius Suter, Blackhawks, 13 points; Josh Norris, Senators, 10 points; Mikey Anderson, Kings, 4 points; Juuso Valimaki, Calgary Flames, 4 points; Gabriel Vilardi, Kings, 3 points; Philipp Kurashev, Blackhawks, 3 points; Igor Shesterkin, New York Rangers, 2 points; Jason Robertson, Dallas Stars, 1 point