Notable NHL Award Winners

The 1966-67 Calder Trophy-winner (rookie of the year), later credited with revolutionizing the game by becoming a feared offensive force from the blueline, won the Norris Trophy (best defenseman) a record eight times. His one-season hardware haul while skating for Boston in 1969-70 speaks of the enormity of his talent: Art Ross Trophy (scoring title), Hart Trophy (MVP), and the Norris. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP that season.

The Great One owned the Hart (eight straight from 1980-87; nine in all) and Ross (seven straight from 1981-87; 10 in all) and also bagged the Lady Byng Trophy (gentlemanly play) five times. Due to his playing a season in the rival World Hockey Association prior to the Edmonton Oilers joining the NHL in 1979, Gretzky did not qualify as a rookie and therefore never won the Calder. Defenseman Raymond Bourque of the Bruins was the winner for the 1979-80 season.

Worthy players can be overlooked by the voters of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, but sometimes their peers rectify it with the Pearson Award (MVP as chosen by the players). In 2003, Markus Naslund won the Pearson after scoring 104 points for Vancouver but finished second to Peter Forsberg (106) in the Hart voting. Goaltender Mike Liut had no shot for the Hart against the likes of Wayne Gretzky (164 points) in 1981, but was awarded the Pearson for his stellar 33-14-13, 3.34 GAA season for St. Louis.

One of the few goaltenders to win a major award other than the Vezina Trophy (he won six), The Dominator took the Hart in back-to-back years (1997-98) before backstopping Buffalo to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999. He was also awarded the Pearson in each of those seasons.

An anomaly among Hart winners, the Montreal goaltender beat out Calgary's Jarome Iginla in 2002 while winning the Vezina with a record of 30-24-10, seven shutouts, a 2.11 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage. Theodore has since struggled to approach that level of excellence with the Colorado Avalanche and Washington Capitals.

Among the many luminaries (Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Jacques Plante) in the ranks of Vezina winners is Jim Carey, a Washington Capitals netminder who beat out Chris Osgood of the Red Wings for the trophy in 1996. Carey posted excellent numbers (35-24-9, 2.26 GAA, 9 shutouts), but never had another winning season and was out of hockey by 1999.

Perhaps the most mind-bending Hart winner of all, Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Al Rollins won the Vezina in 1951 but took MVP honors in 1954 with a record of 12-47-7 and a 3.23 GAA. Five of his 12 wins were shutouts, which were pretty much what he had to pitch in order to win behind a thoroughly awful team.

Nicklas Lidstrom, the Red Wings' nonpareil captain, has won the Norris six times, trailing only Bobby Orr (8) and Doug Harvey (7), the Canadiens' superb Hall of Famer who some feel may have been even better than Orr. Randy Carlyle (inset right), current coach of the Anaheim Ducks, has the distinction of beating out New York Islanders Hall of Famer Denis Potvin for the Norris in 1981 while playing for Pittsburgh. It was Carlyle's only Norris during his 17-year NHL career.

Among the most famous Calder-winners are Alex Ovechkin, who beat out Sidney Crosby in 2006, and Mario Lemieux (1985) who went on to win three Harts, four Pearsons, six Ross, two Smythes and the 1993 Masterton Trophy for perseverance and dedication to hockey. Dryden, Montreal's Hall of Fame netminder, holds the distinction of winning the Calder the year (1972) after he won both the Stanley Cup and the Smythe as a late-season call-up. Dryden also won five Vezinas during his career.

Sometimes, winning the Calder is not an indication of future success. Sergei Samsonov (1998) and Andrew Raycroft (2004), both of the Boston Bruins, have yet to fully deliver on their promise. Barret Jackman, a presumably defensive blueliner for St. Louis, has been plagued by injuries and has posted successive -17 and -12 campaigns the past two seasons. He was chosen in 2003 over Detroit's superb two-way forward Henrik Zetterberg.

Bob Gainey, the Canadiens' Hall of Famer and current GM, may have been the finest two-way forward of all-time, as his four successive Selke Trophies (1878-81) attest. Jere Lehtinen of the Dallas Stars is the only active three-time winner (1998, `99, 2003). New Jersey Devil John Madden won the Selke in 2001 and has been runner-up three times, a bittersweet distinction he shares with Buffalo's Craig Ramsay (1985 winner; runner-up in 1978, 1980, '81).

The Rocket Richard Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL's leading goal-scorer, is most often the property of snipers such as Teemu Selanne, Pavel Bure and Jarome Iginla. In 2006, Ilya Kovalchuk (52 goals), Jaromir Jagr (54) and Alex Ovechkin (52) were edged out by Jonathan Cheechoo, the San Jose Sharks winger who scored 56. Since then, Cheechoo's production has declined from 56 to 37 to 23 to 12.

Scotty Bowman, who has won a record nine Stanley Cups, earned the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year twice (1977, 19996 -- with Montreal and Detroit, respectively) during his illustrious career. Jacques Demers is the only repeat winner (1987, 88 with Detroit) while Bob Francis remains one of the more obscure choices. Francis bagged the Adams in 2002 while guiding the Phoenix Coyotes to a 40-27-9-6 mark, but lasted only another season-and-a-half and has been out of the NHL ever since.