No Golden Knights Winners (Or Snubs), At 2022 NHL Awards

Advertised poorly, the 2022 NHL Awards were Tuesday night in Tampa Bay and hosted by SNL’s Keenan Thompson. The Vegas Golden Knights did not have anyone from the organization win any awards.

Only one VGK player was nominated for a trophy, that being Jack Eichel for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which sees a player from each team nominated.

The overly long and drawn-out award show awarded just five major awards during the course of one-hour. All other awards were statistical, or spoiled in the earlier rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Auston Matthews won the Hart Trophy as league MVP, Igor Shesterkin won the Vezina as top goaltender, Cale Makar won the Norris as top defenseman, Moritz Seider won the Calder for top rookie, and Matthews won the Lindsay as most outstanding as voted by the players.

In terms of statistical awards, Connor McDavid won the Art Ross for most points, Matthews won the Rocket Richard for most goals, and Fredrik Andersen and Antti Raanta split the Jennings Trophy as the goalie duo with the lowest save percentage, all in the regular season.

For some reason, the NHL has been announcing the winners of other trophies during the course of the Stanley Cup Playoffs these past few years, and not withholding the information until the actual awards.

Awards that were spoiled in 2021-22 include Patrice Bergeron winning the Selke Trophy for the fifth time as the league’s top defensive forward, PK Subban winning the King Clancy for his humanitarian acts, Darryl Sutter winning the Jack Adams as top coach, Anze Kopitar winning the Mark Messier award for leadership, and Kyle Connor winning the Lady Byng for sportsmanship.

No Golden Knights Representation

In the only category in which the Golden Knights technically had a nominee, Carey Price beat out Eichel and 30 others to win the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance and dedication to hockey.

In terms of snubbed nominations, the Golden Knights didn’t really have any this season. No player on the current roster came close to superstardom on the 2021-22 roster. Mark Stone for the Selke? Hurt. Jack Eichel for MVP? Hurt. Peter DeBoer for the Jack Adams? Fired. Robin Lehner for Vezina? Oh boy.

The only glimmer of hope came with Alex Pietrangelo finishing 15th in Norris voting with one 5th placed vote. Yay.

Only two major awards are left to hand out for the 2021-22 season. Fittingly they are the two most important. The Colorado Avalanche are up two games to one on the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Stanley Cup. Makar, Vasileviskiy, Nathan Mackinnon, and Nikita Kucherov all look like solid Conn Smythe picks.