Calder Trophy Odds: Who Is Favored To Win NHL’s Rookie of the Year?

Along with the NHL’s regular season, the period for players to make their case for NHL awards is winding down. 

One of the still competitive races is for the Calder Trophy, the award given each year to the best first-year player in the league. 

From the perspective of the oddsmakers, it seems that winning and a potential playoff berth are going to be major points of consideration. Montreal’s Lane Hutson, who trailed his former Boston University teammate Macklin Celebrini for months in the Calder odds, has pulled into the pole position as the Canadiens look ready to make a playoff appearance. 

Here’s a look at how the rest of the odds are looking as of April 9. 

Calder Trophy Odds

2024-25 Calder Trophy Favorite

Lane Hutson, D, Canadiens (-2000)

It’s easy to distill this year’s Calder race as a competition between the more well-rounded player, Celebrini, who looks like a future NHL star, and the Unicorn player, Hutson, who’s doing something at the defense position that hockey fans haven’t really seen before. 

If you haven’t watched a Canadiens game this year, please do yourself a favor, and Google some Lane Hutson highlights to see what I’m talking about.

The X-factor in that debate is the wide chasm between the way the Canadiens’ season has gone and the way Celebrini’s San Jose Sharks season has gone. The fact that Hutson, who does have the good fortune of playing on a much more talented roster, is on a contending team may be the difference maker here. 

But beyond that, Hutson also plays a bigger role than Celebrini on his team, purely from a time on ice perspective — 22.39 for Hutson and 19:54 for Celebrini. He’s also broken some of Montreal’s records, surpassing Chris Chelios for most assists by a Canadiens rookie defenseman. 

At -2000, Hutson has the award all but locked up. 

2024-25 Calder Trophy Contenders

Macklin Celebrini, F, Sharks (+1000)

None of the earlier commentary comparing Celebrini to Hutson is meant to diminish the fact that the latter is also having an incredible rookie season. 

He’s also collecting some assist records. With his 35th helper on Monday night, he now has the most assists for a rookie in franchise history. 

San Jose may finish last in the league standings this season, depending on how this last week shakes out for the Chicago Blackhawks. But unlike Chicago, Celebrini and the Sharks actually seem to be having fun playing hockey. A last-place finish would not be a disastrous situation for either San Jose or Celebrini.  

Given Celebrini’s well-rounded game, fans can expect to see him in the All-Star game and in contention for other awards soon. 

Matvei Michkov, F, Flyers (+1500)

Michkov’s odds have gotten slightly shorter since these rankings were last updated.

Typically, a head coach’s firing would be bad for a young prospect like Michkov, but the absence of John Tortorella may actually be a good thing in this case. Tortorella’s idiosyncratic decision-making led to a couple of benchings for Michkov this season, which couldn’t have been good for either his confidence or his Calder candidacy. 

Torts is by no means a bad coach but he’s probably not the one you’d choose to skipper a rookie-heavy roster. It’s like hiring Dan Hurley or Bobby Knight to run your AAU team. 

Now that Michkov has a more level-headed coach, his end of the season’s been slightly stronger and the development will likely only continue progressing next season if the Flyers grab a new head coach.