EP Rinkside NHL awards at the halfway point in the 2023-24 season

The Edmonton Oilers 4-2 win over the Seattle Kraken last night means that they've finally crossed the 41-game threshold along with the rest of the NHL, and that means we're right around the halfway mark in the 2023-24 season.

What better way to mark the occasion than by handing out some hypothetical hardware in the form of NHL awards, as voted on by the EP Rinkside staff?

I've summoned a roundtable of our NHL contributors and scouts that features Cam Robinson, Chace McCallum, Daniel Gee, Dimitri Filipovic, JFresh, Jimmy Hamrin, Marek Novotny, Mitch Brown, Sara Civian, Sean Shapiro, Victor Nuño, Ryan Lambert, and of course, yours truly to submit five-person, ranked ballots on each of the major awards.

We've tackled the Hart, Calder, Norris, Selke, Vezina, and Jack Adams trophies, even though the PHWA only gets to vote on the first four items – NHL general managers get the Vezina, and broadcasters get the Jack Adams.

The Hart Memorial Trophy

From NHL.com's good website: The Hart Memorial Trophy is an annual award given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team. The winner is selected in a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association in all NHL cities at the end of the regular season.

Only two players received first-place Hart Trophy votes, with Nathan MacKinnon's 11 decisively besting Connor Hellebuyck's two for the top spot. The Colorado Avalanche centre's 72 points place him in a tie with Nikita Kucherov (fifth-place in our Hart Trophy voting) for the NHL lead, and he's set a career-high in average time on ice, playing more than 23 minutes a night. The Avs have been one of the best teams in the NHL since about mid-December, and he's been critical to their success.

The Calder Memorial Trophy

From NHL.com's website: An annual award given to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the NHL, selected in a PHWA poll.

There's a fair bit more suspense around the Calder Trophy than I think most anticipated going into the season, but even so, Connor Bedard took home the award in almost unanimous fashion, taking all but one of our first-place votes. The first-overall pick in last year's draft has been out with a broken jaw since Jan. 5, but he still leads all rookies with 33 points in 39 games. The other skater to receive a first-place vote? Brock Faber. He's put up sterling underlying results in an unforgiving role with the Minnesota Wild, and there may be an opening for him to usurp Bedard at season's end if his injury keeps him from the Chicago Blackhawks lineup for much longer.

The Vezina Trophy

From NHL.com's website: The Vezina Trophy is an annual award given to the goalkeeper adjudged to be the best at this position as voted by the general managers of all NHL clubs.

Hellebuyck may not have been unable to unseat MacKinnon in the Hart Trophy race, but he's taken home the Vezina Trophy in almost unanimous fashion, securing first-place votes from 12 of our 13 voters. He may have started the season slowly, but he's allowed two or fewer goals in each of his last 20 starts, dating back to Nov. 17, and his .925 on the season leads all goalies with 20 or more starts. Thatcher Demko earned the other first-place vote with a career-high .919 save percentage and a 22-8-1 record, the second-most wins among any starting goaltender.

The James Norris Trophy

From NHL.com's website: An annual award given to the defenceman who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.

Not a lot of suspense here: Quinn Hughes takes home the Norris in unanimous fashion, securing first-place votes from the entire panel. His 53 points put him in a tie with Cale Makar for the league lead among defencemen, and his plus-29 on-ice goal differential at evens is tied with his pairing partner Filip Hronek for best in the NHL. That's an open-and-shut case if there ever was one.

The Frank J. Selke Trophy

From NHL.com's website: The Frank J. Selke Trophy is an annual award given to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.

They say the Selke is the most difficult award to vote on, and our panel's three separate answers to who gets a first-place vote reflect as much. Having said that, it's not like Aleksander Barkov really had to sweat this one out. His plus-18 goal differential at 5-on-5 places him in a tie for first among all NHL forwards, and he's scoring at well north of a point-a-game clip. All this despite playing in a gruelling matchup role.

The Jack Adams Award

From NHL.com's website: Presented to the coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success, selected in a poll of NHLBA members.

The Jack Adams isn't beating the PDO Award charges this year. Because it's Rick Tocchet in his first full season with the Vancouver Canucks, with their league-leading, at times historic 104.89 PDO, who takes home the award at the midway point in this season. This was one of the more crowded fields, though, with five coaches receiving first-place votes and 11 coaches each getting at least one vote in this exercise.