My Mid-Season Habs Awards

Despite only being in his 2nd season in the NHL, the Canadiens defenseman is continuing to defy expectations, as after an amazing Calder Trophy campaign, he has looked even better in his sophomore season. Hutson has already become one of the best playmaking defensemen at just 21 years old, as he is tied for the lead among all NHL defensemen in assists with Cale Makar, who both have 35 at this point. The Habs’ small-statured defenseman has more than squashed any possibility that he could have a sophomore slump by producing at a point-per-game pace in the 42 games of the season, trailing only Nick Suzuki in points for the Habs lead.

While Hutson has upped his offensive game, his defensive play has also impressed a lot more than expected. Due to his hockey IQ, he learned how to use his lower centre of gravity to his advantage, which has led him to be able to win puck battles against bigger opponents without needing to be overly physical. His two-way improvement this season is enough to say he beats out Nick Suzuki and others for the award of Midseason MVP.

Next up, my best forward so far this season goes to Juraj Slafkovsky .

While it may be controversial, he has managed to be on the best offensive line no matter where he plays this year. It doesn’t matter if he’s playing with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki or Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen; whichever line Slafkovsky plays on is the best offensive line.

When he was playing on a line with Caufield and Suzuki, Slafkovsky may not have been putting up as many points as he is now, but he did the work along the boards to help create the space his more skilled linemates needed him to create, which led to many goals for Caufield, especially early in the season. Eventually, he was paired with Demidov and Kapanen, where he was able to start being the play driver on his line of rookies, which allowed him to re-unlock the skills that he had shown in his draft year during the Olympics.

Slafkovsky is now showing why he deserved to go first overall, as he does everything from hitting and blocking shots to scoring goals and setting up his teammates with beautiful passes. Sure, playing with someone who has as much pure skill as Demidov helps, but the fact that the line that whatever line that he plays on seems to be the most productive at even strength deserves him the nod for the best forward over Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Ivan Demidov, who all have more points than him. Suzuki probably should have won this, but there have been moments where his play has been inconsistent, possibly due to injury, which drops him down a bit. Slafkovsky has been consistently playing well all season.

The next award goes to the best defensive defenseman on the team so far this season, which, as of now, goes to Mike Matheson.

When we go over the best defenseman overall, it is obviously Hutson, but I don’t want to do duplicates for awards, which is why I’ve decided to honour one defenseman solely for his defensive contributions so far this season. When we look at his defensive game and having to shut down opponents’ top players, nobody has done a better job at that than Matheson. He often played the entire 2 minutes on the penalty kill during the first half of the season.

A huge reason why he’s been the best defensive defenseman this season is that he doesn’t have to carry the puck as much by playing Noah Dobson and therefore can often focus on just getting the puck out of harm’s way. Not to mention nobody can eat up the big minutes that he does in the defensive zone.

During the 3 games that he missed due to injuries this season, the team struggled defensively, as there was nobody who could truly fill his shoes. Now that Kaiden Guhle will be back from injury really soon, some of the defensive pressure will be taken off Matheson, but that still doesn’t mean he won’t be used a ton down the stretch. Part of the reason he is getting this award over Noah Dobson is that he tends to be more responsible in his own zone, and he seems to be able to handle top players much better than his partner. Also, Alexandre Carrier, Jayden Struble, and Arber Xhekaj have had a lot of ups and downs so far this year.

Finally, my last award goes to Ivan Demidov as the team’s most exciting player.

Truth be told, how can I not honour Ivan Demidov for his spectacular start to his NHL career, putting up 10 goals and 26 assists for 36 points in 42 games? Alongside fellow rookie Oliver Kapanen as his centre, the Russian winger has made waves around the NHL with just how skilled he is. Demidov is a triple threat who tends to look for the pass before anything but can easily beat his opponents with his shot or a deke.

There is nobody who creates as beautiful plays for the Habs as Demidov, and there is no doubt that he will be the best forward on the team in a year’s time, but as a rookie there are still a few things he needs to work on before he surpasses his more experienced teammates like Nick Suzuki as the team’s top forward.

What do your mid-season awards look like?