Colorado Avalanche’s 2023-24 Team Awards

This season, MacKinnon takes home all these awards in one fell swoop. He finished with the most points and goals on the team and contributed a team-high 13.1 offensive point share, which estimates the number of points contributed by a player due to his offence. This was a career year for MacKinnon, who broke franchise and NHL records and also led the team in Goals created, points, shots, adjusted points, adjusted assists, adjusted goals created, expected +/-, offensive point shares, and point shares.

Winner: Nathan MacKinnon

Calder Memorial Trophy

The Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the season’s top rookie, was first awarded in the 1932-33 season to Carl Voss of the Detroit Red Wings. The last Avalanche to win the Calder was Makar during the 2019-20 season when he finished with 12 goals and 38 assists. The Avalanche haven’t had many standout prospects since then because management has focused on using prospects and draft picks as assets to improve the team.

Justus Annunen, Oskar Olausson, Jean-Luc Foudy, and Sam Malinksi saw ice time with the Avalanche this season, but the Calder winner is goaltender Annunen. He’s played the last two seasons, but according to eligibility rules, a goaltender cannot play 25 games or more in a single season or more than six games in two preceding seasons; Annunen only started two in each of the last two seasons.

In 14 games and 12 starts, Anunnen has an 8-4-1 record with a .928 SV% (save percentage) and a 2.25 GAA (goals against average). He hasn’t been outstanding, but with Georgiev’s sub-par play, especially with the playoffs around the corner, it’s nice to know that Anunnen, at 24, could come in relief postseason and be able to grow his game more as he gets more experience under his belt.

James Norris Memorial Trophy

The James Norris Memorial Trophy is given to the defenceman with the most outstanding all-around ability. It’s most often awarded to the defenceman with the most points. The Norris was first awarded in the 1953-54 season, and the recipient was the Red Wings’ Red Kelly. The last Avalanche to win the trophy was Makar in 2021-22 when he scored 28 goals and 58 assists. He is the only Avalanche/Quebec Nordique to win the Norris in franchise history. Dennis A. Murphy did win the Top Defencemen Award in 1972-73 and 1974-75, but that was with the World Hockey Association.

Again, Makar is the winner. He has the most points from a defenseman on the team, quarterbacks the top power play, and ranks second in ice time behind his partner Devon Toews. He ranks second in the NHL in points, goals, and assists by a defenceman. His point total might have been higher had he not gone through a seven-game pointless streak after the All-Star break. However, he bounced back to score 14 points in his next ten games, achieving numerous accomplishments like his first career hat trick during those next ten games. He recently became the third-fastest defenceman to reach 250 career assists in NHL history, behind Brian Leetch and Bobby Orr.

Winner: Cale Makar

Most Surprising Award – this is not an NHL award.

It seems every season, one player, rookie or veteran, finally has a breakout campaign. Last season, free agent Jonathan Drouin signed a one-year $825 thousand contract. Knowing MacKinnon from their time in Junior, many hoped Drouin would find that chemistry that made him the third overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Despite a rocky start to the campaign, finishing with 19 goals and 37 assists – a career-high, surpassing the 53-point total he set twice, once in 2016-17 with the Tampa Bay Lighting, then again in 2018-19 with the Montreal Canadiens. Drouin will be an interesting piece this upcoming offseason, depending on how much the 29-year-old asks for in free agency, how well he performed during the regular season, and how well he does during the playoffs.

Winner: Jonathan Drouin

Most Improved Award

Every fan loves watching a player you have drafted or signed grow and enhance their skills. For the Avalanche, Logan O’Connor has been a perfect example of a player who has slowly developed into the player they wanted. With 13 goals and 12 assists, he was on pace to smash his record of 26 points set last season, but unfortunately, he suffered a hip injury and underwent season-ending surgery.

His line with Ross Colton and Miles Wood, was exceptional, ranking third in xgoals at 56.2% (expected goals percentage) and first in xgoals for per 60 minutes at 3.79. With one more season left in his contract, the 27-year-old will look to continue where he left off last season.

Winner: Logan O’Connor

Most Disappointing Award

The definition of disappointing is “failing to meet expectations,” and in the NHL, it’s easy to use that word to describe players’ performances, team performances, and playoff success; in this case, we’re going to use it to describe one Avalanche player’s season based on how this team is built for playoff success, and that player is Alexandar Georgiev. While he did lead the league in wins, he achieved his worst career save percentage at .897 and worst career GAA at 3.02. In his last six games started, he has a .851 SV% and a GAA of 4.95.

Based on goalies with a minimum of 50 starts, he has the third-worst GAA and worst goals against. The reason it’s so difficult to label him disappointing is because of his position. Going into the playoffs, it’s one thing if a forward or defender is not producing at an expected level, but if you can’t expect saves from your goaltender, then that makes going into the playoffs much more challenging. It doesn’t help when your first-round matchup is against the best goaltender in the league, Connor Hellebuyck, and your defence in front of him isn’t helping either.

Winner: Alexandar Georgiev

This covered most of the major awards the NHL gave out annually, and I made some to acknowledge the season that just came by. The Avalanche had a solid season and is prepared to bounce back from last season’s playoff disappointment against the Seattle Kraken. MacKinnon had an all-time season as an Avalanche player, Makar continues to show why he is the best defenceman in the NHL, and goaltending has become an issue going forward. Not everyone will agree with these picks, and that’s okay. Let us know in the comments who you think would win these awards.