Yet another season is nearly in the books so it's time to once again welcome you to our annual end-of-season series in which you get to vote on the winners. That's right, the Callies are back!
Just like last year, there will be a new category each day for you the readers to vote on (including one day with two awards to vote on), with a new category being released each day between now and the final day of the regular season. The seven categories are:
|
Best Forward |
4/6 |
|
Best Defenseman |
4/7 |
|
Best Game of the Season |
4/8 |
|
Worst Game of the Season |
4/9 |
|
Team MVP & Best Newcomer |
4/10 |
|
Best Moment of the Season |
4/11 |
So without further ado, here are the nominees for our first award:
Best Forward
Ryan Getzlaf
|
GP |
Goals |
Assists |
Points |
SATF% |
PIM |
|
76 |
24 |
44 |
68 |
51.7% |
58 |
The Anaheim Ducks captain had yet another stellar year, earning every penny of his gargantuan contract extension he signed last year.
In addition to leading the team in points by putting up some excellent numbers (including increasing his goal scoring from the year previous), Getzlaf has also improved his possession play and faceoff prowess. Likewise, he was the lone Anaheim representative at the 2015 NHL All-Star Game. And he did all this despite missing several games due to injury.
It's become extremely clear that where the captain goes, this team follows. When Getzlaf is playing well, the rest of the team follows. When he's not, the team looks lost. And once again this year he's got them headed in the right direction with their third consecutive division title. Early on in the season, before he missed time due to an injury, he was getting whispers of a possible MVP nomination yet again, though those have since died off.
Corey Perry
|
GP |
Goals |
Assists |
Points |
SATF% |
PIM |
|
65 |
33 |
21 |
54 |
50.9% |
67 |
Even after battling the mumps and some serious injuries, Corey Perry has yet another 30-goal season for the Ducks. While he's been a little more inconsistent with his scoring this season, he leads the NHL with three hat tricks, and once again has established himself as one of the league's elite goal scorers.
On so many occasions when the Ducks are in desperate need for a big goal, it's this guy who comes up with the clutch tally to put the team on track.
His production has dipped this year, due largely to both his time out of the lineup and the utter incompetence of the team's power play this season, but nonetheless Perry still continues to reign supreme in terms of goal scoring in Anaheim.
Ryan Kesler
|
GP |
Goals |
Assists |
Points |
SATF% |
PIM |
|
79 |
20 |
27 |
47 |
51.2% |
75 |
The undisputed biggest Anaheim acquisition of the offseason has also undoubtedly been one of their best players of this season. We all knew when Anaheim acquired Kesler that he was a true talent, but after watching him night after night, I'm consistently amazed at just how good he really is.
Kesler has often drawn the tough matchups against the opposition’s top center, and regularly succeeds in shutting them down. Most notably, he’s drawn the difficult assignment of shutting down Anze Kopitar in the season series vs. Los Angeles. The Ducks won four out of those five games.
Despite coming in with a reputation for being injury-prone, Kesler was on pace to play all 82 games this season had he not sat out for the Edmonton Oilers game last week as well, showing just what he’s capable of when he plays an entire season.
Rickard Rakell
|
GP |
Goals |
Assists |
Points |
SATF% |
PIM |
|
69 |
9 |
19 |
31 |
53.3% |
10 |
Rickard Rakell has been two different players this season. At the start of the year, he was initially beaten out for his job by young hotshot William Karlsson, who played the first few games for the Ducks. Karlsson’s rookie fire died out eventually, and Rakell got his shot. He initially did well, but didn’t produce all that much, just three assists in 17 games, and eventually found himself demoted to Norfolk.
He returned four days later, however, and was a completely changed man.
Since his return, Rakell has notched nine goals and 19 additional assists to vault his point totals on the season to 31. In addition, at the age of only 21, he finds himself amongst the team leaders in terms of puck possession, registering well over 50% of all shot attempts for while on the ice. But beyond that, Rakell has changed his game. He's attacking the front of the net more frequently, and more often than not is the guy Bruce Boudreau can rely on to turn the puck to the other side of the ice and get a zone-start for another line in the offensive zone.
As a result, Rakell finds himself quickly becoming a fan-favorite, particularly of statistics-gurus, who see an extremely bright future for the young Swede.
Matt Beleskey
|
GP |
Goals |
Assists |
Points |
SATF% |
PIM |
|
63 |
22 |
10 |
32 |
54.2% |
39 |
To say this has been a breakout year for Beleskey would be an understatement. In fact his 22 goals on the year are more than he has scored in each of his last three seasons combined. When Corey Perry missed significant time with various ailments, it was Beleskey who stepped up to fill in the scoring role, notching numerous key tallies early in the season to help catapult the Ducks to their throne atop the Pacific.
It's been a long time in coming too, as the seasoned player has always shown flashes of brilliant hands and sniping ability, but never the ability to consistently string it together until now. He completely cast that aside this season, vaulting himself to a role as an extremely valuable depth asset to this Ducks team, and giving them a bona-fide underrated threat beyond its top three forwards.
| Option | Votes |
|---|---|
| Ryan Getzlaf | 95 |
| Corey Perry | 4 |
| Ryan Kesler | 25 |
| Rickard Rakell | 39 |
| Matt Beleskey | 2 |