Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Head-Scratching Votes

06/17/2013 at 5:09pm EDT

from James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail,

GM of the Year Toronto Maple Leafs GM Dave Nonis received two second place votes (the potential difference between Murray winning over Shero) despite making few significant roster changes from the lineup he inherited upon taking over right before the season started.

Even more curious, Greg Sherman, GM of the last place team in the West, picked up a third-place vote for helping steer his team into the basement.

Vezina Trophy (top goaltender) Ray Emery (only 19 starts) received a first-place vote – putting him ahead of Bobrovsky, Henrik Lundqvist and everyone else. Jonas Hiller (who lost his starting job for long stretches to Viktor Fasth) received a second-place vote, and Carey Price and Niklas Backstrom both got third-place votes despite well below average save percentages (.905 and .909).

Hart Trophy (league MVP) Alex Ovechkin beat out Sidney Crosby by only 32 points in one of the closest votes in history, meaning another half dozen votes one way or the other could have meant for a different winner.

Some of those went to what are decidedly complementary players – Chris Kunitz (five points) and Pascal Dupuis (one point) – or those having off seasons like Evgeni Nabokov (five points), Backstrom and Price (three each).

Anyone, anywhere, would be hard pressed to argue any of those five were among the top five most valuable players in the league this season.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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