Way-Too-Early 2024 Calder Trophy Rankings as NHL's Best Rookie (2024)

The Calder Trophy is an annual award that goes to the NHL's best rookie.

Sometimes that's evaluated purely by points; often it's evaluated based on what the voters know that the player is capable of skill-wise, even if that player doesn't play a full season (see: Connor Bedard). Both are valid approaches; typically, the crop of players involved determines which approach will be taken each season.

The 2024-25 NHL season hasn't started yet, so it's far too early to rank the best candidates for this award, but we're going to do it anyway. It's fun. We know who these players are in terms of skill set and past performance. The current missing factor is how they'll translate to the NHL.

Only one of the players we're discussing has seen any real time in the NHL so far — hence the trophy being for best rookie — so all of this is subject to change. Once the season gets going we'll get a better idea of how they're going to be used, what kind of opportunities they'll get, and how their teams look around them. Then we'll do another ranking with that information.

But for now let's go on vibes. And educated scouting, of course.

Logan Stankoven is a bit of a dark horse. He's right on the edge of games played to be eligible for the Calder, for one thing—the cutoff is 25 regular-season games, and he played 24 this season.

He also didn't quite match up to his junior scoring ability during his initial jaunt in the NHL. This was largely due to usage and adjustment to the league, though, rather than skill, and most reports project Stankoven to be used in a top-six role next season. If he is, expect him to come out of the game strong and make a high-impact play for the league's top rookie.

If we're being honest, talent-wise Stankoven should've been a first-round pick. During his time spent in the AHL last season, he was one of the best, if not the best, forwards in the league. It was there we got a much better glimpse of the player he's going to be at hockey's top levels.

He's fearless, with incredible puck skills that allow him to create chances at a high level, and has a work ethic and motor that don't quit. If there's a player this season who could win the Calder through sheer will alone, it might be Stankoven.

Whether Cutter Gauthier makes a real play for the Calder honestly feels like it's going to depend more on how bad the Anaheim Ducks are as a whole during the 24-25 season than his personal skill set. This kid rips.

If the Ducks trade Trevor Zegras, Gauthier will feast on opportunities that Zegras might otherwise take advantage of. If Zegras stays, chances are good they increase each other's scoring potential (if they're played together). Regardless, Gauthier feels like he will be a key piece on the Ducks' roster moving forward. And because he's tenacious and thrives on driving the puck to the net, it's easy to see him making a big impression offensively. He's not just a one-trick guy, either; he's strong defensively, using his size and stick to win puck battles.

But expectations can weigh on a player, and after his issues with the Philadelphia Flyers and the weight of being the return for the Jamie Drysdale trade, Gauthier is coming into Anaheim with some pretty lofty ones. How much it will affect his play remains to be seen.

There's always the question of how a college player will adjust to the NHL. I'm not sure we have much to worry about in that respect when it comes to Will Smith. It was tempting to rank him one rung higher here, and he would be if it weren't for the two players above him being who they are.

Smith is such a creative player. His vision and hockey sense and how he uses them, along with his phenomenal puckhandling skills, set him apart from the rest of the pack. He sees opportunities and takes advantage of them before his opponents realize what he's up to, which makes him an eternal threat. If he can utilize that skillset in the NHL the way he has in the past, he'll put up an excellent fight for the Calder, and we'll have a lot of fun watching along the way.

It'll be tempting for some pundits to question whether Smith can be that player away from former linemates Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault. After all, they played together for a long time. At the end of the day, though, there weren't any passengers on that line. That's why it worked so well, and the trio will continue to play well without each other.

It will, of course, take time to adjust to having different teammates—and not having linemates who can effectively read your mind—but you're not going to see the kind of falloff from Smith (or Leonard or Perreault, though they're still in college) that you might with other players in similar situations.

Macklin Celebrini is exceedingly talented and he'll be a cornerstone of the San Jose Sharks rebuild. He's a player who feels like he should be a slam dunk for the Calder. But this situation—two high-end talents on a rebuilding team going through their rookie year together—is evoking memories of Jonathan Toews losing the Calder to Patrick Kane.

Let's remove that framework from the situation and look at Celebrini as a player. His skating is incredible, particularly his acceleration and agility, both of which are valuable to high-scoring play in the modern NHL. After all, you can't stop a guy from scoring if you can't catch him. He's also incredibly tenacious, never giving up on a situation whether he has the puck or not. His hockey IQ is off the charts, and he can use it at his top skating speeds. It's the recipe for a phenomenal rookie season.

The x-factor in whether Celebrini has a Calder-worthy rookie season will be how he's used by the Sharks and the kind of pressure that is put on him. Pressure is a terrific but tricky weapon in the modern NHL: just enough sharpens a player to be his best, but too much can negatively affect his play. 'Saving the Sharks'? That's a lot of pressure to put on a guy. Celebrini is hardly the type to crumble—it's far more likely that he'll blow everyone away and sweep this award—but it doesn't take a huge misstep to fall out of Calder contention.

Matvei Michkov, who just recently made it to Philadelphia and signed his entry-level contract, is the best talent the Flyers have seen since Eric Lindros. If he adjusts well to the North American game, the Calder could very well be his to lose.

Glancing at his KHL scoring rate tells us this—in the 48 games he played last season (shortened due to his missing time with pneumonia) he finished with 41 points, including 19 goals. It's the second-most productive KHL season from a 19-year-old behind Kirill Kaprizov.

He's absurdly hockey-smart—very cerebral and skilled at problem-solving at the moment. He's not going to be the guy darting and dekeing around every opponent on the ice, but that's fine; he doesn't need to be. His playmaking is high-end, thanks to his sky-high hockey IQ and vision that allows him to read the ice at the game's top speeds. His finishing talent is just about as good, with an arsenal of shots that have been annoying KHL goalies, and will soon be doing the same to goalies in the NHL.

Historically, he's been a threat every single time he steps on the ice. Regardless of whether he wins the Calder or not, chances are good that will continue to be true—and chances are good it won't be the last NHL award he's considered a favorite for.