We are headed down the stretch of the 2024-25 NHL season, so now is a perfect time to try and tie a bow on some of the awards races and see if there’s any betting value left on the board.
We’ll start with the Hart Trophy, which could be of particular interest to readers of this column since we stumped for Connor Hellebuyck at 150/1 in this space before the season kicked off.
He is now the odds-on favorite at -135, but this isn’t a sure thing.
Nathan MacKinnon (+235) and Leon Draisaitl (+475) will both garner plenty of support from the voters, who are often hesitant to give this trophy to a goaltender.
That said, I have a hard time seeing this award going in any other direction at this point.
Hellebuyck has the Jets in position to finish as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and win the Presidents’ Trophy, both of which seemed like pipe dreams in October.
I think the Michigan native should be a steeper favorite than his current price, and I wouldn’t argue against anybody backing him at this number.
The odds are telling us that the Calder Trophy is a two-horse race between Lane Hutson (-160) and Macklin Celebrini (+125), but there is a long shot here worth considering.
The main reason that the Flames are in the playoff race this season is because of goaltender Dustin Wolf.
The diminutive netminder is 24-15-5 with a .909 save percentage entering play on Saturday and has a plus-13.4 Goals Saved Above Expected in his 44 appearances.
There is a growing sentiment among the hockey media that Wolf should get the Calder if the Flames make the playoffs, and I won’t stand in the way of that logic.
Calgary is +350 to qualify for the postseason, and Wolf is 40/1 to be named Rookie of the Year. Do with that information what you want.
And finally, let’s talk about the Selke Trophy, which is given to the league’s best two-way forward.
The betting market is sure that Aleksander Barkov (-1200) will repeat, but that seems like a mad price for an award that is hard to quantify.
Perhaps Barkov is a prohibitive favorite because this award tends to stick with one player for a while, and he’s won it in two of the past four seasons, but that does seem a little presumptuous, especially since there are no back-of-the-baseball-card stats that correlate to winning the Selke, making it the most subjective of the individual awards.
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That’s why I think there’s a ton of value on Anze Kopitar of the Kings at 100/1.
Kopitar is a two-time winner of this award, playing a pivotal role for one of the best defensive teams in the NHL and is likely to retire at the end of next season, though it wouldn’t be a shock for the 37-year-old to call it quits this spring.
When Kopitar does hang ’em up, he will be remembered as one of the most dominant defensive players of his generation, and I could easily see voters honoring that legacy by penciling him in at the top of their ballots this June.
