For those degenerate gamblers out there, the odds makers Bodog.lv have released their odds for winners of the NHL's biggest individual postseason awards.
Let's take a look at who they've picked as favorites. (Spoiler alert: Sidney Crosby is the favorite to win just about every award.)
-The Hart Trophy, given to the league's most valuable player, is heavily favored to be awarded to Crosby. No surprise there. He's the reigning champ and very possibly the best player in the league. Health is a question but, as he proved last season, he's been able to push through in the past. Ryan Getzlaf, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares and Alexander Ovechkin round out the list's top five. Stamkos, Tavares and Ovechkin are world-class players and drive the offense for each of their respective teams. Tavares plays on a better, but still bad, Islanders squad, and Stamkos plays on a Tampa Bay team that has recently seen the departure of both Vinny Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis. They'll be forced to be in the MVP discussion almost by default. Ovechkin is a superstar but doesn't know how to do much other than shoot the puck so he'll be in the Hart discussion even though he won't necessarily need to be.
-The Art Ross Trophy, awarded to the league's overall scoring champ, is also supposed to end up in Crosby's possession. The top 5 is very similar to The Hart's, except Crosby teammate Evgeni Malkin comes in at 5 and Ryan Getzlaf is nowhere to be seen. Again, dependent on health, Crosby is a pretty big favorite. As noted above, Stamkos, Ovechkin and Tavares basically are the offense for their respective teams so their presence in the top 5 is no surprise. Malkin will have to unseat his own teammate to win, but with he and Crosby on the same team and seeing time on the power play together, anything is possible.
-The Rocket Richard Trophy, awarded to the top goal scorer, again sees a lot of the same names. The additions here are Duck Corey Perry and Dallas Star Tyler Seguin, both of whom could benefit from lessened pressure due to their team's offseason additions to other lines. Stamkos, the purest scorer in the league and two-time winner of the award, is a pretty heavy favorite. Ovechkin clocks in at number two because, well, he doesn't do much other than shoot. He's already won the award 4 times. And Crosby is there because, well, he's Sidney Crosby.
-The league's award for best defenseman, The Norris Trophy, is also slated to go to Crosby. Kidding! Senator Erik Karlsson is the favorite. He's an incredibly dynamic offensive presence on the blueline and is coming off a down year with a supposedly refreshed and renewed focus. Karlsson, along with fellow top 5er's Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith and P.K. Subban, has already won the award. Subban is an incredibly offensively talented and still-developing presence on Montreal's back end. Keith and Chara are imposing figures with strong all-around games for Chicago and Boston respectively. Nashville's Shea Weber, the only player on the list to not have won the award yet, is well on his way to being the best defensive player in the league.
-The best goaltender award, also known as The Vezina Trophy, is a complete and utter crapshoot. How Bodog can even offer odds for this is crazy. Yes, there are consistently good goalies in the NHL. But the game is played in such a way that bounces and streakiness play just as much if not more of a part as actual skill when it comes to goaltending. Each year an unknown comes out of the woodwork to become the next big thing, and each year a formerly top notch goalie falls off the face of the earth as they allow soft goals and lose confidence. That being said, their top 5 is probably about as accurate a preseason guess as you could make. Last year's winner, Boston's Tuukka Rask, is a wall, and the Rangers' "King" Henrik Lundqvist is stellar year in and year out. The Canadien's Carey Price has confidence issues at times but is supremely talented. LA's Johnathan Quick is coming off a couple of sub-par regular seasons but always plays well when the lights are brightest and has two Stanley Cups to his name.
-Last and very much least, we have The Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league's top rookie. This is where Bodog literally took names out of a hat and threw them at the wall to see what would stick. No one has any idea yet whether these kids will even make NHL rosters, let alone how their bodies will hold up over an 82-game season or how they'll perform on a night to night basis.
