NHL Awards: Predicting The 2014-2015 Winners
NHL Awards: The Lady Byng
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The three finalists for the Lady Byng are three very classy forwards. This one should be a close race. Again, the three nominees are Pavel Datsyuk, Anze Kopitar and Jiri Hudler.
Anze Kopitar showed great sportsmanship this year in the NHL. He played in 79 games and wound up with 64 points while playing over 19 minutes a night. He only had 10 penalty minutes all season and he is generally respected as one of the class acts in the NHL.
Jiri Hudler had an outstanding season for the Calgary Flames. He led the Flames to a highly improbable postseason birth with 76 points (31 goals and 45 assists) in 78 games. He had a plus/minus of 17 and only had 14 penalty minutes. Hudler is an underrated player and it’s great to see him getting some recognition, even if it is with a nomination for a mostly irrelevant award.
Pavel Datsyuk has to be considered the favorite for the Lady Byng. He has already won the award four times. This season, he had 65 points (26 goals and 39 assists) in 63 games. He only had eight penalty minutes all season long.
Our ballot:
- Datsyuk
- Kopitar
- Hudler
This is certainly a huge step forward from allowing a player who demanded a trade from his team because he was snubbed from his country’s Olympic hockey team to be nominated for the award.
Next: The Selke