Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by Frank Seravalli to discuss which players could win the Lady Byng Trophy on the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s touch on the Lady Byng Trophy. One that doesn’t get a ton of conversation, somewhat understandably so, but one player has a very interesting case. We’ve talked about Auston Matthews who is a lock for the Rocket Richard Trophy. He’s in the Hart Trophy conversation. The fact that he only has like four penalty minutes this year and has put up these kind of numbers is incredibly impressive.
Matthews is one name to keep an eye on, among the D-men in the hunt is another name to keep an eye on. Jaccob Slavin stands out among the defensemen who have a high level of play and don’t take many penalties. Where do you come out on the Lady Byng?
Frank Seravalli: I tend to always shape my vote toward defensemen because I think it’s so much harder to defend and not take penalties than being a forward and not take penalties. Auston Matthews certainly is deserving of consideration and will be on my ballot somewhere with just two minor penalties so far this season. But especially when you consider minutes played, I look at that situation and as mentioned I think there should be more of a preference placed on defense.
This is the hard part about voting on this award but Slavin seems like the type of guy who’s actually a gentleman, not saying that’s all he needs to be. I’m not on the ice, I don’t hear the chirping, I don’t know what it’s like but it seems like from what we know of him upholds some of those qualities that you want to see in a Lady Byng winner. Not just someone who doesn’t take a lot of penalties. So I think he checks a lot of the boxes for me but as mentioned Auston Matthews will definitely be getting a lot of consideration as well.
You can watch the rest of the episode here:
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