For all the abuse the guy took in the media this year, it turns out P.K. Subban is not such a bad guy after all.
Members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association saw fit to vote Subban onto the NHL's All-Rookie team, selecting him and Washington standout John Carlson as the two defencemen on the six-man squad.
It may seem like an obvious choice, but voters could have sided with either Kevin Shattenkirk or Cam Fowler – who finished 1-2 among rookie defencemen in scoring.
Yet, for all his faults, and his diving, and his lack of respect, and his annoying flamboyance, and his embarrassing displays of personality, the hockey media saw fit to honour Subban with this.
He should be proud.
And this should only be a taste of what's to come.
Carey Price also fared rather well in voting for the awards, coming fifth for the Vezina (as voted on by the general managers) with a first place vote and five third place votes. He also came seventh in Hart voting, with fellow goalies Pekka Rinne (4th) and Tim Thomas (5th) finishing ahead of him. Finally, Price came fourth in all-star voting among goaltenders, behind Thomas, Rinne and Roberto Luongo.
Plekanec moving up the Selke ranks
But the most intriguing result for me as far as the Canadiens are concerned was to see where Tomas Plekanec would finish for the Selke Trophy.
Last season, as he established himself among the league's elite two-way players, Plekanec finished 26th in the voting. This season, he cut it in half and finished 13th with one second place vote, one for third, three for fourth and eight for fifth.
Plekanec was also 13th among the league's forwards in shorthanded ice time per game, but no one on the top 25 of that list came close to matching his 57-point season.
Still, Plekanec's mediocre 50 per cent efficiency in the faceoff circle likely played against him here, as did his one shorthanded goal and the fact that the Selke remains an award won largely on reputation.
Advances in statistics to evaluate defensive play have made this less prevalent, but still, the Selke nominees every year are players who have earned a reputation as a defensive stopper over a long period of time. So Plekanec is getting there, considering he went from 26th to 13th in one year.
Furthermore, you look at the 12 players who finished in front of him and it's hard to argue that Plekanec truly deserved to be way higher on the list. Ryan Kesler won the award going away and was followed by Jonathan Toews, Pavel Datsyuk, Patrice Bergeron, Manny Malhotra, Frans Nielsen, David Backes, Mike Richards, Anze Kopitar, Ryan Callahan, Brooks Laich, and Henrik Zetterberg.
Immediately following Plekanec are Claude Giroux and Jordan Staal, so I would argue that finishing 13th among this group is hardly a slap in the face.
Business matters
Finally, in the odds and ends department, La Presse's Richard Labbé reported in the Wednesday morning edition that Roman Hamrlik's agent, former Canadien Petr Svoboda, is expecting an offer from Pierre Gauthier prior to the July 1 opening of free agency.
I have no doubt that's true, but I question the wisdom of Svoboda announcing it to the world before the offer even arrives. One thing Gauthier is not very fond of is information leaks. In fact, he despises them.
I'm not sure his disdain for juicy information getting out to the general public would be enough to make Gauthier change his plans, but I'm tempted to believe it may just be strong enough that he chooses not to send that offer after all.
The news of the impending offer seemed to trigger some animated reactions from fans, even though the key piece of information – the dollar figure – is still missing. In fact, there isn't even an offer yet, so I guess that's missing, too.
In any case, bringing Hamrlik back as a depth move doesn't appear to be so crazy to me, assuming he agrees to play for depth money. Something in the range of Hal Gill's $2.25 million would be suitable for a player who, if everyone remains healthy, would be a pretty darned good fifth or sixth defenceman.
He would also provide some degree of insurance should Andrei Markov get hurt, and the fact Yannick Weber plays forward as well as defence makes it possible to keep him as an eighth defenceman and carry no extra forwards.
Of course, Markov is not yet signed either, at least not officially. The Team 990's Tony Marinaro is reporting a two-year contract worth $11.5 million is on the verge of being signed (those terms sound familiar). Keep in mind, this is the same guy who broke the exact diagnosis of Markov's knee injury weeks before the team released it. Just saying.
Markov's agent Don Meehan, of course, is denying it because the deal has yet to be consummated. Until that happens, nothing is set in stone. La Presse's Marc-Antoine Godin reports Meehan will meet with Gauthier in Minneapolis on Thursday and that he hopes things become clearer after that meeting is held.
I am already on record endorsing the exact contract terms Marinaro is reporting, and if the two sides are really so close, it would probably be a good idea for Gauthier to get this contract out of the way before leaving Minneapolis on Saturday so he can focus on other matters.
