Henrique, Landeskog and Nugent-Hopkins named Calder Trophy nominees

Apr 20, 2012, 11:18 AM EDT

The NHL has announced its three finalists for the Calder Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s top rookie. This year, the nominees are New Jersey’s Adam Henrique, Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog and Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

More, from the NHL:

In his second professional season, Henrique became one of the season’s bigger surprises. Injuries to Travis Zajac and Jacob Josefson opened the door for Henrique to make the team, and he made the most of his opportunity. Henrique spent most of the season as the team’s top-line center, skating between star forwards Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk. He excelled in that role, and in 74 games he finished first among all rookies with 35 assists and third with 51 points.

[Landeskog] tied for the lead among all rookies with 52 points and was second with 22 goals. He led the Avalanche with a plus-20 rating while averaging 18:36 of ice time per game, tops among first-year forwards, and he was one of just four rookies to average more than 1:20 per game on both the power play and on the penalty kill.

[Nugent-Hopkins] finished with 52 points despite playing only 62 games — 20 fewer than Landeskog — because of a shoulder injury. The youngest regular in the NHL this season — he didn’t turn 19 until April 12 — he had 18 goals, three multi-goal games, and five assists in a game, Nov. 19 against Chicago. He was the fourth-ever 18-year-old to have a five-assist game, and the first since Kovalchuk on Jan. 19, 2002.

Some notes:

1) Snubs include Philly’s Matt Read (led all rookies with 24 goals), Buffalo’s Cody Hodgson (played in 83 games!) and Rangers forward Carl Hagelin, who led all first-year players with a +21 rating.

2) The last Avalanche player to win the Calder was Chris Drury in 1998-99 and the last Devils player was Scott Gomez in 1999-2000. No Oiler has ever won.

3) This is the second consecutive year all three nominees were forwards. Last year, Logan Couture, Jeff Skinner and Michael Grabner were the three finalists — the last non-forwards to be nominated for the Calder were Jimmy Howard and Tyler Myers in 2009-10 (the latter would end up winning.)

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