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Buffalo Sabres History: Calder Trophy Winners

By Melissa Kania

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The National Hockey League will hold its annual year-end awards ceremony this year on June 24 in Las Vegas. The league will celebrates its top players in both on-ice and off-ice performances, rewarding representatives from the top scorers to the best goaltenders and everything in between. As the NHL continues to announce its nominees for the yearly awards, we’ll take a look back at the history of each award and when – if ever – a member of the Buffalo Sabres franchise has won it.

Some of these awards have been given out for 90 years, while others are newer. Regardless, it’s a true honor for any player to receive these awards.

Today, we’ll look at the NHL’s Calder Memorial Trophy.

The Calder Memorial Trophy is annually given to the player who is selected as the most proficient in his first year in the National Hockey League. The winner of this award is selected via poll of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Voting uses a point system to name a trio of finalists and the eventual winner.

The award was originally presented by Frank Calder, former NHL President, beginning in 1937. After his death, it was named in his memory.

Where else could names such as Gilbert Perreault, Tom Barrasso and Tyler Myers find common ground?

All three of those players won the Calder Memorial Trophy as members of the Buffalo Sabres organization.

Perreault, 20, won the award in the Buffalo Sabres’ inaugural season.  He registered 38 goals and 34 assists for 72 points in that inaugural year. Despite registering a minus-39, he was honored as the league’s best rookie on a brand-new Buffalo Sabres team.

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    • It wouldn’t be until 13 years later that another member of the Buffalo Sabres would win the award.

    Barrasso, 18, won the award after the 1983-84 season. He became just the 10th goaltender in league history to win the Calder Memorial Trophy, joining big-name guys like Tony Esposito, Roger Crozier, Terry Sawchuk and Ken Dryden.

    To this day, he remains the only Buffalo Sabres goaltender to win the award, and just 15 goaltenders have ever won the Calder. Since Barrasso: Ed Belfour, Martin Brodeur, Evgeni Nabokov, Andrew Raycroft and Steve Mason.

    Most recently for the Buffalo Sabres, it was defenseman Tyler Myers taking home the Calder after the 2009-10 season. Myers was 19 at the time and came off a rookie year that saw him register 48 points, including 37 assists, and a plus-13. His offensive point share that season: 4.0, while he defensive point share was 5.8 (according to Hockey-Reference.com).

    Myers received 34.2 percent of the votes, edging out Jimmy Howard and Matt Duchene.

    Last year’s winner was Nathan MacKinnon.

    This year’s nominees, picked from a crop of good rookie players: Aaron Ekblad, Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Stone. Who will get the honor?

    Next: Sabres' Hart Trophy Winners

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