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2015 NHL Awards recap: The Calgary Flames received a lot of love

Awards shows are always subjective, and usually disastrous as a result. That said, a lot of voters showed the Flames a lot of love, so they couldn't have been all bad.

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Another season is officially in the books. Before all eyes turn to the future, set to take centre stage in the upcoming NHL entry draft, first, we looked to the past year, and honoured it one last time. The votes came in, and the biggest winner by far – Jiri Hudler’s shoes aside – was Carey Price, with a clean sweep of the Vezina, William Jennings, and Hart Trophies, not to mention the Ted Lindsay Award.

The second biggest winners? Quite possibly the Calgary Flames. They led the league with four finalists. Bob Hartley won the Jack Adams, Jiri Hudler won the Lady Byng, and Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano were finalists for the Calder Trophy and NHL Foundation Award, respectively.

That's not all, though. A number of Flames weren't recognized with a finalist title, but several were still recognized by the voters, even if they failed to place.

The Selke

Patrice Bergeron collected his third Selke Trophy, to the surprise of nobody. Rather, a surprise came a bit further down the list.

Finishing 20th in voting, just two points behind Sidney Crosby, was Sean Monahan. That’s right: the 20-year-old Monahan who’s only played two seasons in the NHL. He went 1-0-1-1-1 in voting. That’s right: he got a first place vote.

This could be a sign of things to come. Monahan, after all, broke out this season not just offensively, but defensively as well when he was forced to take over as first line centre in the absence of all Flames veterans. If he puts together more seasons like this one, then his name will probably start to gain traction, and who knows? The Flames could have a perennial Selke winner of their own.

The Norris

If we’re being honest with ourselves, Giordano should have won the Norris this year, injury be damned. That said, it went to Erik Karlsson, he who scored the most points out of all defencemen this season.

There’s still a lot of Flames representation there, though. Giordano finished sixth place in voting. He went 1-6-11-15-25, somehow receiving just that one first place vote. That gave him a grand total of 177: more than the Conn Smythe winner, Duncan Keith’s, 134.

But wait! There’s more! TJ Brodie really broke out this year, and he was rewarded with an 18th place finish for his efforts. He tied Jonas Brodin with one third place vote each, which just makes me even more sad we’ll never get a Brodie-Brodin pairing.

But wait – there’s even more! Dennis Wideman had a career year offensively, and ended up placing 20th in Norris voting as a result. He received four fifth place votes.

Three of the Flames' defencemen received votes for the trophy that's supposed to go to the best defenceman in the entire league. That's pretty wild. Let's do even better next year.

The Jack Adams

Of course, we already know Bob Hartley won his first Jack Adams Trophy, but he won it by a lot.

Hartley finished with a 37-13-13 record for a grand total of 237 points. His fellow finalists? Alan Vigneault finished with 121 points, while Peter Laviolette just 81. This one wasn't even close.

General Manager of the Year

While Hartley's been around the block coaching a few times, this was Brad Treliving's first year as GM. Steve Yzerman ultimately took home the honours, but our rookie made a splash in the NHL, to the tune of a ninth place finish with three first place votes.

Who saw that coming? Don't mess up the off-season, Brad. We're counting on you now.

The Calder

BLAAAAAHHHHH. This is one we were all definitely hoping would go better. While the points totals were close, Aaron Ekblad ended up winning with a whopping 71 first place votes. Mark Stone, who received 47, came in second.

That left Johnny Gaudreau to clean up in third place. His totals were 33-57-48-19-0, tallying 1026 points. Stone had 1078, and Ekblad, 1147. So it was closer than the first place votes made it look… but damn.

Filip Forsberg finished in fourth place with a grand tally of 594, so the top three were truly in a league of their own. Just wish it had gone another way.

The Vezina

No Flames were even considered for this trophy, which is fine, because, I mean, Carey Price. He had an incredible season. Acknowledging anyone else would have been pretty ridiculous.

The Lady Byng

This one was a fun one, and not just because Hudler was probably inebriated and definitely shoeless. He blew the competition away with 700 points: a record of 52-13-12-8-5. His former teammate and frequent Lady Byng winner, Pavel Datsyuk, finished with 648 points, but only 29 first place votes.

That's not all, though. You know how Hudler mentored Gaudreau and Monahan throughout the season? That even showed up in the voting. The Flames were one of the least penalized teams all year, and their top line, which combined for 202 points, only amassed 40 penalty minutes.

Monahan finished fifth in Lady Byng voting, with a 13-5-8-7-6 record. Gaudreau joined him, albeit down at 17th place, with a 1-1-1-6-3 tally of his own.

Hudler really does know how to be a good papa.

All-Star Teams

Last but not least, the all-stars after a full year. Hudler was all over it, placing 12th out of all centres (two third place votes), seventh out of left wingers (one second place vote, tied with Zach Parise), and third out of all right wingers (13-29-23). Let’s all just agree dude’s on the right wing, okay guys?

To add to that, Gaudreau finished ninth out of all left wingers, receiving one third place vote and tying with Henrik Zetterberg. Naturally, he made the All-Rookie team as well.

And of course, the Flames weren't left out to dry on defence. Giordano placed sixth in selections (8-23-44), Wideman 18th (0-1-6), and Brodie 21st (0-1-1).

Wideman above Brodie? Leave. Get out of here. I take it all back, the awards are stupid.

Except for the Lady Byng, of course. Jiri Hudler forever.

by Ari Yanover