Thursday, October 22, 2009

More Del Zotto Calder Talk

Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy looks at the wide open Calder Trophy race for top rookie in the NHL and mentions Michael Del Zotto as a serious candidate...

Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto wasn't even mentioned in the 2009-10 Hockey's Future Calder watch, which should tell you everything you need to know about how ahead of schedule he's been for New York. He's playing fewer minutes on average than fellow Rangers rookie D-man Matt Gilroy (19:04), but he's third in the League in average power-play ice time (4:14) behind John Tavares (4:44) and Victor Hedman (5:23, which is currently ninth most in the NHL).

Wyshynski adds that defensemen have a large hill to climb to win the Calder and if Del Zotto is going to win, it will be with an impressive offensive body of work; which will depend greatly on whether the Rangers' offense continues to excel.

...i think the most impressive part about Del Zotto is with all this praise being dumped on him it doesn't seem to have gone to his head. At least not yet. He's been very humble and grounded.

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