From: dchhabra@stpl.ists.ca (Deepak CHHABRA)
Subject: Re: Calder (not Bure, not Lidstrom, not Amonte!)
Reply-To: dchhabra@stpl.UUCP (Deepak CHHABRA)
Organization: Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 22:27:35 GMT

In article <92094.104228EJW103@psuvm.psu.edu> EJW103@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>The winner of te Calder trophy should NOT be the person with the best individua
>l effort during a season.  Like Amonte and his approximately 65 points, or the
>great defenseman Lidstrom, or the playmaker Bure.  Instead, this trophy should
>belong to the player who has made the greatest contribution to his team.
>
>Player          Team           GWG      GTG        Points earned for team
>
>Donald Audette  Buffalo         6        1                  13
>
>Pavel Bure      Vancouver       6        0                  12
>
>Tony Amonte     New York (R)    3        0                   6
>
>Nicklas LidstromDetroit         1?       0?                  2?
>
>When you look at the statistics this way...The Calder Trophy can go to no one
>else but Donald Audette of the Buffalo Sabres.  He has other merits as well, su
>ch as his 29 goals which is surpassed only by Amonte, but his Goals/shot % is
>19.9% which is far above any rookie in the hunt.  At that rate, in an 80 game
>season, Donald would have 39 goals, which is not so far from 40 which is outsta
>nding for a rookie!
>
>Talk all you like about how weak a rookies team is so he deserves it (Pat Fallo
>on), or how many points he has (Amonte), or what a great player he is going to
>be (Bure), or even how many points he has even when he is a defenseman (Lidstro
>m), but when you look at the facts... NO ONE has earned more POINTS for his
>TEAM than DONALD AUDETTE.             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>And for that, if a Calder trophy is awarded, he should be its recipient.
>
>Eric

Unfortunately your criteria fails.  You have looked at GWG and GTG and 
assumed that these stats alone provide an accurate indication of the 
contribution a player has made to his team.  I admit that I haven't had
the opportunity to watch any of the rookies mentioned as much as I would
have liked, so I'm not about to knock any of them.  (But that has nothing
to do with this).  What sort of contribution can a defenceman make killing
a penalty?  Let's suppose Lidstrom is on the ice and makes a *sparkling*
defensive play in the third period of a game that his team is winning 3-2
while shorthanded.  He didn't score the game-winner, but he did protect the
lead, right?  Similarly, let's suppose Buffalo blew away some (obviously
hapless:->) team 6-1, and Audette scored the second goal.  Does this make
him more valuable to the Sabres than anybody else? Nope.  Moreover, what
if Audette's most important game-winning goal came from him knocking in a 
loose rebound left behind a *stupendous* end-to-end rush by Pat
La-La-La-La-FONTaine?  Does he really deserve all that much credit? Again
no.  I'm not taking anything away from the guy (hell, he beat Patrick Roy
twice in 12 seconds or something 3 weeks ago) but like I said, your criteria
fails. (BTW the second goal on Roy was a breakaway that resulted from a 
beautiful pass from the Buffalo blueline so give credit to the guy who made
the pass). Anyways, 'nuff said.  

HABS RULE!!!!