Brayden Schenn: Odds-on favorite to win rookie of the year? – Puck Daddy – NHL Blog – Yahoo! SportsTrying to figure out the Calder Trophy winner in early October is like trying to handicap the Best Picture winner in April: There are simply too many variables in play for there to be anything close to a “sure thing.” […] So far, three rookies have the buzz early: Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Edmonton Oilers and Brayden Schenn of the Philadelphia Flyers.
You’re probably wondering which Kings players qualify as rookies this season. The criteria are that you can’t have played in more than 25 games in any one NHL season, and you can’t have played in more than 5 games in a season twice.
Jonathan Bernier played exactly 25 games last season. Andrei Loktionov played in 19. Jake Muzzin played in 11. And, of course, Viatcheslav Voynov hasn’t played an NHL game yet.