During All-Star week many of the game's promising young talents will take part in the YoungStars Game. Earlier this week the line-ups were announced, and feature several big names, and no one over the age of 24. Among the 20 players, 9 are rookies. And out of those rookies, 4 are in serious contention for rookie of the year honors - although depending on who you talk to, Evgeni Malkin has already won.
Colorado's Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski are ranked 3 and 4 among rookies in scoring, but both trail the 2 front runners by about 8 points. While both are having stellar years as rookies, such a strong rookie class has prevented them from taking top honors.
Barring some sort of catastrophe, the Calder Trophy will be given to either Evgeni Malkin or Anze Kopitar. Even before the start of the season, everyone was talking about Malkin. The 2nd overall pick in the 2004 draft, Malkin joined the Penguins for the '06-'07 season after bailing on his Russian team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk. From the start he played well, working alongside several other notable young players in the Pens organization such as Sidney Crosby, Colby Armstrong, Jordan Staal, and Marc-Andre Fluery. He currently leads all rookies in scoring with 22 goals and 22 assists for 44 points, and is a +2.
On the other side of the country Anze Kopitar has been putting up strong numbers for the Los Angeles Kings. His 29 assists leads all rookies, and with his 12 goals give him 41 points on the season to go along with a -8 rating. The first Slovenian player in the NHL, Kopitar has thrived in the Kings organization after being taken 11th overall in the 2005 draft.
While almost all votes for rookie of the year would go to Malkin, I would argue that Kopitar has had the better season. While Malkin gets all the press and skates alongside some of the most talented young stars in the game (note the 3 Pens in the YoungStars Game), Anze has produced near identical point totals while playing alongside equally-talented but less-noted players.
While Malkin has gotten all the hype, we'll have to wait 'til the end of the season and look at the final stats to see just who deserves to be Rookie of the Year. I'll be waiting to see how the YoungStars Game turns out, knowing that it will be a good indicator of how the candidates will perform in the 2nd half of the season. With everyone showcasing their talents, we'll get the chance to see just how good they are.
