In the end, however, he was certainly good enough to be considered a top candidate.
"I wasn't going to let [talk of the Calder] take away from what I needed to do to help the team," Barzal said. "Every day I was trying to get better, whether putting points on the board or not. I wanted to become more of a complete player every game. I'm still young and have to grow a lot so I was never focused too much on the Calder ... but it would be great to win."
Barzal and Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser appeared to be in a dead-heat for the award until the latter sustained a non-structural, non-displaced fracture of the transverse process in his lower back late in the third period of a 4-3 overtime win against the Islanders on March 5, forcing him to miss the final 16 games of the regular season.
"He's got confidence with the puck and an ability to change directions and create opportunities for guys around him," Islanders coach Doug Weight said of Barzal. "He can find people while he's shifting his weight and turning away from checks, and instantly he sees the ice."
Barzal (6-foot, 189 pounds) led all NHL rookie forwards in assists (63), points (85) and points-per game (1.04) in 82 games. He is one of just seven players in NHL history to have at least 20 goals and 60 assists in his rookie season. He had five assists in a game twice this season to become the first Islanders player to have that many in one game since Pat LaFontaine on Jan. 11, 1990.
"I think he has tremendous agility going side-to-side and in how he cuts and really maneuvers and turns to see the play," LaFontaine said. "I can relate to that because that's what I did. It's probably great for him to have a John Tavares to watch every day; I was lucky because I watched Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy when I was a rookie with the Islanders (in 1983-84)."
Only two rookies in NHL history have recorded more assists in a season than Barzal -- Peter Stastny (1980-81) and Joe Juneau (1992-93) each had 70.
A panel of 17 NHL.com staff members and correspondents voted for their top five Calder candidates. Barzal received 85 points and all 17 first-place votes. Arizona Coyotes center Clayton Keller was second with 44 points, Boeser was third with 39 points, Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was fourth with 26 points and Devils center Nico Hischier was fifth with 25 points.
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis): Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders, 85 points (17 first-place votes); Clayton Keller, Arizona Coyotes, 44 points; Brock Boeser, Vancouver Canucks, 39 points; Charlie McAvoy, Boston Bruins, 26 points; Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils, 25 points; Yanni Gourde, Tampa Bay Lightning, 20 points; Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets, 13 points; Alex DeBrincat, Chicago Blackhawks, 1 point; Will Butcher, New Jersey Devils, 1 point; Juuse Saros, Nashville Predators, 1 point
