Pettersson leads Calder Trophy race at three-quarters point

To mark the three-quarters point in the season, NHL.com is running its fourth installment of the Trophy Tracker series this week. Today, we look at the race for the Calder Trophy, the annual award given to the player selected as the top rookie in the NHL as selected in a Professional Hockey Writers Association poll.

Elias Pettersson continues to raise the bar and rewrite the record book as a rookie with the Vancouver Canucks.
The 20-year-old center is closing in on a mark set 27 seasons ago when Hockey Hall of Famer Pavel Bure scored 34 goals in 65 games in 1991-92. Bure not only set the rookie mark for goals but tied Ivan Hlinka (1981-82) for the rookie Canucks record of 60 points in a season.
Pettersson has 26 goals and 54 points with 20 regular-season games remaining.
He leads NHL rookies in points, goals, assists (28), even-strength goals (18), power-play goals (eight) and primary assists (21) in 51 games. His 23.0 shooting percentage leads all NHL players with at least 10 goals scored and he leads the Canucks with 26 minor penalties drawn. He also set a Canucks rookie record with seven game-winning goals, tying him with three other players for third in the NHL this season.

Seven rookies in NHL history have scored more than seven game-winning goals in a season, led by Steve Larmer (1982-83) and Marek Svatos (2005-06), who each scored nine.
A panel of 21 NHL.com writers voted Pettersson the winner of the Calder Trophy at the three-quarters point of the season. All 21 believe Pettersson will be the first Sweden-born forward to be named top rookie in the NHL since Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog in 2012.
Pettersson received 105 points and all 21 first-place votes. Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin was second with 77 points. St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington and Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart are tied for third (33 points). Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen is fifth (32 points).
Dahlin, who ranks second among NHL rookies with 34 points (eight goals, 26 assists), is the first 18-year-old defenseman in NHL history to score three game-winning goals in the regular season. The previous mark of two was set by Phil Housley (Sabres) in 1982-83 and matched by Aaron Ekblad (Florida Panthers) in 2014-15.
What has been most impressive about Pettersson is the pinpoint accuracy of his snapshot and wrist shot, which have confounded NHL analysts.

"The goals [Pettersson] scores are phenomenal; the one-timer goal he scored at the Chicago Blackhawks (a 4-3 overtime loss Feb. 7) was about as hard as I've ever seen a guy rip a one-timer," former NHL goalie and current Canucks radio analyst Alex Auld told SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. "This guy does everything and does it extremely well. He has such good edges, and is so strong that way, that the upper-body strength doesn't seem to be a big issue. He's going to get bigger and stronger, so I can't imagine how dominant he's going to be when that happens in a couple of years."
Pettersson has scored 11 goals with his wrist shot and seven off his slap shot.
"The one thing about Pettersson is he loves going short side," Auld said. "I have a feeling he's got the idea of where to shoot late in the shot ... on the release. He's picking his spots because he can put that puck where he wants it. If he gets the puck in the right spot on the one-timer, he unloads it and it's an absolute bomb."
Pettersson (6-foot-2, 176 pounds) was able to showcase his tremendous shot during the Canucks SuperSkills on Dec. 2, 2018, when he won the hardest shot event with a speed of 99.4 miles-per hour. The second hardest shot belonged to defenseman Michael Del Zotto (97.5 mph), now with the Anaheim Ducks.
"[My slender frame] has been with me all my life," Pettersson said. "Now I'm kind of tall, but I'm still skinny. When I grew up, I was short and skinny. I was always hearing, 'He's too small to play. He won't be able to play good, blah, blah, blah.'"
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis):Elias Pettersson, Canucks, 105 points (21 first-place votes); Rasmus Dahlin, Sabres,77 points; Jordan Binnington, Blues, 33 points; Carter Hart, Flyers, 33 points; Miro Heiskanen, Stars, 32 points; Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa Senators, 10 points; Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Montreal Canadiens, 4 points; Andrei Svechnikov, Carolina Hurricanes, 2 points; Colin White, Senators, 2 points.