Zegras Named Calder Trophy Finalist

The Ducks announced today that center Trevor Zegras has been named a finalist for the 2021-22 Calder Trophy by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA). The Calder Trophy is awarded "to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition." The winners of the 2022 NHL Awards will be revealed during the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final, with exact dates, format and times to be announced. Zegras joins Toronto's Michael Bunting and Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider as the top three contenders for the Calder Trophy this year.

Zegras, 21 (3/20/01), is the third player in franchise history to be named a Calder Trophy finalist (no Duck has won the trophy), joining Bobby Ryan in 2008-09 (finished second in voting) and Paul Kariya in 1994-95 (finished third in voting).
Zegras recorded 23-38=61 points and 50 penalty minutes (PIM) in 75 games with the Ducks in 2021-22. He completed the regular season leading all NHL rookies in points per game (.81, minimum 40 points), power-play goals (9), co-leading in game-winning goals (5), while ranking second in points, tied for second in goals and third in assists. He also led all NHL skaters with six shootout goals. He is one of 15 NHL rookies the last 10 seasons (since 2012-13) to record 60 or more points, and the third American to do so (also Auston Matthews and Clayton Keller). At 21 years and 41 days, Zegras became the youngest player in Anaheim history to lead the club in assists.
The Bedford, N.Y. native scored 12 go-ahead goals this season, five more than any other rookie in 2021-22 (Tanner Jeannot, 7). Since 2005-06 (17 seasons), only eight other NHL rookies have scored more go-ahead goals than Zegras: Alex Ovechkin (22 in 2005-06), Sidney Crosby (14 in 2005-06), Petr Prucha (14 in 2005-06), Evgeni Malkin (14 in 2005-06), Logan Couture (13 in 2010-11), Mark Stone (13 in 2014-15), Anders Lee (13 in 2014-15) and Matthews (20 in 2016-17).

He led all rookies with 19 multi-point games, becoming only the eighth rookie to do so since 2005, joining Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin, Artemi Panarin, Mathew Barzal, Patrik Laine and Paul Stastny. His 19 multi-point games are five more than any other rookie this season (Bunting, 14).
Selected by Anaheim in the first round (ninth overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft, Zegras is Anaheim's all-time leading rookie scorer with 61 single-season points and 26-48=74 points all-time. He surpassed Bobby Ryan's 31-26=57 points as a rookie in 2008-09 and Cam Fowler's 30 assists set in 2010-11. He also became the third Ducks rookie in club history, and first in 14 seasons, to score 20 goals in a single season (Bobby Ryan, 31 in 2008-09 and Dustin Penner, 29 in 2006-07).

Zegras recorded multiple assists in three straight games, Dec. 1-6 (0-7=7), becoming the fourth rookie in the last 25 years to do so. He joined Barzal (2017-18), Panarin (2015-16) and Patrick Kane (2007-08), all of whom went on to win the Calder Trophy.

This season, Zegras scored two lacrosse-style goals, Apr. 1 at Arizona and Jan. 27, 2022 at Montreal, one of two players in NHL history to score two such goals (also Carolina's Andrei Svechnikov: Oct. 29, 2019 vs. Calgary and Dec. 19, 2019 at Colorado). His goal Apr. 1 marked the fifth lacrosse-style goal all-time in the NHL, with Zegras (twice), Svechnikov (twice) and Nashville's Filip Forsberg (Jan. 14, 2020 vs. Columbus) the only three NHL players to pull off "The Michigan" goal.

On Dec. 7 at Buffalo, Zegras assisted on Sonny Milano's goal with a lacrosse-style "alley-oop" pass, lifting the puck onto his stick and flipping it over the net, with Milano batting the puck out of mid-air to score. It is one the only instance in NHL history a goal has been scored with a lacrosse-style pass from behind the net. The Zegras- Milano "alley-oop" goal was viewed more than 50 million times over a 48-hour span across various social and digital media platforms from Dec. 7-9.