Edmonton Oilers forward Nail Yakupov made a strong push for Calder Trophy consideration on Monday by capturing the NHL’s rookie of the month award for April.
Yakupov, 19, scored in seven of 14 games during the month, including his first career hat trick in a 7-2 whipping of Vancouver on Saturday.
All told, the Russian winger scored 11G-4A-15PTS in 14 April games, edging out the likes of Montreal’s Alex Galchenyuk (6G, 6A), Calgary’s Sven Baertschi (3G, 8A) and Chicago’s Brandon Saad (4G, 4A) for the monthly honors.
On the year, Yakupov finished atop the NHL’s rookie scoring leaderboard for the season, tied with Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau with 31 points through 48 games.
He also captured the league’s rookie goalscoring title as well -- his 17 markers were two more than Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher, who finished with 15.
Here’s a rundown of all the rookie of the month winners this season:
Kings d-man Muzzin named March’s rookie of the month