Rinkside Roundup: Logan Stankoven’s Calder Trophy hunt begins

With NHL rosters now cemented, we know more or less which names will be in the running for the Calder Trophy this year.

Lane Hutson is already eating up minutes in Montreal. Matvei Michkov is slowly but surely finding his scoring touch. Dustin Wolf is also currently making a dark-horse push for the top rookie spot. However, one name stands out above the rest — a prospect whose 47th-overall selection in the 2021 NHL Draft immediately seemed like a steal to everyone who watched him in his draft year.

His name? Logan Stankoven. That’s where we begin with Rinkside Roundup.

Logan Stankoven, C/RW, Dallas Stars

Season stats: 0G, 7A, 7PTS 

Last Week Stats: 0G, 3A, 3PTS

Stankoven’s NHL experience heading into this season — 24 regular season games and 19 postseason matches — certainly plays in his favour when it comes to this Calder race. At almost 22 years old, he has almost four years on fellow eligible Macklin Celebrini. But this is one of the first times Stankoven has ever had the upper hand, circumstances-wise.

A COVID-19-shortened draft year and incessant questions about his 5-foot-8, 170-pound frame made him slip to Dallas at 47th, and despite that, Stankoven prevailed. Two seasons as the Kamloops Blazers’ captain and half an AHL year later, and the diminutive forward is now a top-six mainstay in Dallas’ rotation of established forwards.

Stankoven’s standout compensatory traits — his non-stop motor, his perpetually active feet, and his off-the-wall plays — have continued to be staples of his game, but they now serve a different purpose. Where they once served to create separation in transition for shots, they now serve as cycle-starting and playmaking tools. This was especially evident when Stankoven played with Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson against Edmonton in their 4-1 win on Friday, as he made two excellent board plays to set up Hintz wide open in the low slot.

This adaptation from pacey spark-plug scorer to hard-skill board battler and cycle player serves as a blueprint for future undersized prospects with adequate physical skills, and there is one particular 2025 draft eligible in that mould on this list — one who, realistically, won’t have to wait as long as Stankoven did to hear his name on draft day.

Cameron Schmidt, RW, Vancouver Giants (2025 NHL Draft)

Season stats: 12G, 7A, 19PTS 

Last Week Stats: 3G, 3A, 6PTS

After a lacklustre Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament in which he was thrust into an off-puck supporter role, Cameron Schmidt returned to Vancouver in hopes of reconnecting with his true calling as a pure play-driver — and boy did he ever.

Especially evident in this recent three-game, six-point run over the past week, the contrast between Schmidt’s Hlinka tape and what he’s been up to in the WHL has been stark. On a Giants team that encourages Schmidt to take over shifts, the 5-foot-7, 156-pound winger has put his elite skating, tremendous goal-scoring, and playmaking flashes on full display, while also boasting some standout physical mechanics to leverage his smaller frame.

That exact profile certainly rings a bell. With the aforementioned Stankoven having adapted his style to be a better play-supporter and cycle player, expect Schmidt to have to do the same in order to find NHL success. As good as his skating is, the gap between the best and worst skaters in the NHL is far smaller than the one he currently deals with in the WHL. Just like Stankoven, his ability to leverage the other tools at his disposal more frequently and efficiently will need to come with time, but so far, Schmidt is showing very little to detract from him being a top-15 pick when the 2025 NHL Draft rolls around.

Caleb Desnoyers, C, Moncton Wildcats (2025 NHL Draft)

Season stats: 3G, 7A, 10PTS 

Last Week Stats: 2G, 6A, 8PTS

Caleb Desnoyers had a great Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament, showcasing high-end smarts, offensive skill and a physical edge while setting himself up for a top-15 start on our preliminary 2025 NHL Draft board. However, an upper-body injury sidelined him for 10 days, and he only made his return to the Wildcats’ lineup last week.

It didn’t take long at all, however, for Desnoyers to let loose offensively.

Desnoyers’ five-point game against the Sea Dogs was a clinic. He showed a bit of everything — great transition skill on the first goal, and some net-front play, downhill attacks on the power play and solid back-checking in between — on top of bringing the usual physical edge we’ve gotten used to from the 6-foot-2, 180-pound centre. He set the tone early by finishing his hits on the forecheck and pestering defenders down low, making his opponents more likely to rush their breakout plays and turn the puck over even without being on the ice.

It’s early and he needs to work on consistently balancing his energetic and physical game with his finesse-oriented play, but Desnoyers has everything scouts look for apart from speed. There is internal debate among our scouts as to his true upside, but all of us agree: Desnoyers will make the NHL.

Matthew Wood, LW/C, U. of Minnesota (Nashville Predators)

Season stats: 2G, 5A, 7PTS 

Last Week Stats: 2G, 2A, 4PTS

The University of Minnesota faced off against Minnesota-Duluth this past weekend in a back-to-back on foreign soil, and the Golden Gophers made quick work of the Bulldogs — in great part thanks to Matthew Wood’s performances in both their 7-5 win on Friday and their 5-1 victory on Saturday.

The Preds’ 15th-overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft has continued to add ways to circumvent his poor skating. Where he was previously heavily reliant on quick shots and staying above the play, he now attacks downhill, protects pucks, moves opponents’ feet and sneaks behind coverage. Wood was also very active in board battles, engaging defenders with the right timing and leverage to make plays off the wall.

Wood still doesn’t have the foot speed or the agility to get off the wall with the puck and make plays in the middle of the ice, but he has the knowledge, the shot, the playmaking skill and the open-ice handling to pick apart defences with the puck. The next step in Wood’s development will be to add more consistent off-puck rotations to his toolkit, and if he does, there’s a chance his skating becomes a lot less of a limiting factor than it currently is.

Liam Greentree, RW, Windsor Spitfires (Los Angeles Kings)

Season stats: 6G, 17A, 23PTS 

Last Week Stats: 4G, 7A, 11PTS

After slipping to 26th overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, Liam Greentree certainly had doubters to prove wrong. Through nine OHL games this season, he is doing exactly that. The 6-foot-2, 214-pound winger has already amassed 23 points, including 11 in his last three games. Those three games weren’t blowouts, either — the Spitfires scored 13 goals total, meaning Greentree was involved in a whopping 84.6% of his team’s goals this week.

Greentree’s high-end hockey brain blends incredibly well with some high-end puck skills. Whether it’s a shot in-motion, a hard deke through or across a defender, or a slick inside pass through pressure, the winger manages the puck, waits for openings and, if none occur, pries defences open with his hands. His sturdy frame allows him to shrug off contact down low and make smart plays. Just like Matthew Wood, however, Greentree’s skating remains a hindrance. He struggles to escape the wall and mostly defers transition plays to his teammates.

Not much has changed in Greentree’s game since June, but the young forward has a decent amount of runway left to improve upon his inefficient skating stride. Improving his skating would unlock transition offence, allow him to go all-out in his shifts, and circumvent his current need to pick and choose his moments to exert energy, making him a more complete forechecker and backchecker. Regardless, what Greentree has done so far this year has been nothing short of utter dominance, and he doesn’t look like he’ll be slowing down anytime soon.

[Read More: The unique ways Liam Greentree controls the game make him a top prospect]