Long gone are the days when the Penguins used to dominate the NHL Awards and clean up when it came to scoring titles and MVPs. Other than Kris Letang’s Masterton trophy in 2023 — the one award that most would probably rather not win since it implies dealing with a significant amount of pain/trauma along the way — the Pens haven’t had a major award win since Sidney Crosby took home the Rocket Richard (most goals) and Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) in the 2016-17 season.
Sad to say, but it looks like that
streak will extend another season, there aren’t a lot of great candidates for awards coming out of Pittsburgh these days.
Could Dan Muse come out of no where to win the Jack Adams? That would be surprising, Muse is listed at +4000 in some betting areas to do so. The bar is low enough that a surprise playoff appearance would put him on the radar for at least consideration, but the chances of that actually happening are, well, you know.
One tasty area for gambling would be on the Calder trophy. Ville Koivunen is under the radar and seeing odds of +5000 up to +6250 to win rookie of the year. Considering Koivunen did great with the Pens’ star players last year and has a great opportunity to rack up some more points, this could be a good bet to make. Similarly, Rutger McGroarty is in the +4000 to +5000 range on a lot of books. There is no Connor Bedard or Macklin Celebrini this year as a former No. 1 overall pick that is going to dominate the attention and probably score 60+ points as a rookie (though Montreal’s Ivan Demidov is the clear preseason betting favorite at about +250 to +300ish to win, no other rookie has lower than +1000 odds). If the Pens are to win any awards — and that is a big if — a Calder run by Koivunen or McGroarty would be as good a guess as any at this point of the season.
Beyond that, it’s difficult to see much to bank on. Sidney Crosby finished 10th in NHL scoring last season, a very good year but 30 points off what Nikita Kucherov did. Similarly, Crosby’s Hart voting has fallen off as the team slips into being mediocre. Even Crosby’s once rising momentum for a Selke trophy has recently run out of steam over the last few years. Crosby may and will be one of the best players in the league still, but his days of winning awards look over.
