New York Rangers: Was Adam Fox robbed?
The three finalists for the Calder Trophy were announced and New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox wasn’t one of them
Many fans of the New York Rangers feel that Adam Fox could easily be the Calder Trophy winner for his outstanding rookie season. He wasn’t selected as one of the three finalists for the award, behind Cale Makar or the Colorado Avalanche, Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks and Dominik Kubalik of the Chicago Blackhawks. Omitting Fox is unfortunate, but it isn’t without good reason.
There was no doubt that Makar and Hughes were going to be battling for the Calder Trophy. Both had outstanding seasons, statistically better than Fox. As for Kubalik, a late season surge put him in line for Calder contention. His 30 goals were ten more than any other rookie and he was third in points with 46, only behind Makar and Hughes.
Kubalik had only eight goals and 13 points in his first 33 games, but over the last 35 games he had 22 goals and 11 assists, almost a point-a-game pace.
Why not Fox?
One reason Fox didn’t get the nod was his slow start. Unlike Makar and Hughes who were handed key roles with the respective teams, Fox got better as the season went on and was given more responsibility and ice time. In his first 11 games he scored one goal and added one assist. In the next 59, the scored seven goals and added 33 assists for 40 points.
Although his offensive numbers were impressive, they were not as good as Makar and Hughes. Quinn Hughes paced all rookies with 53 points, three points than Makar, but the Colorado rookie also missed a dozen games with injuries.
Perhaps most impressive about Fox is his plus/minus number of +22, the best by far of any rookie this season. Considering that he was paired with another rookie in Ryan LIndgren makes it even more special.
Hughes spent most of the season paired with veteran defenseman Chris Tanev while Makar’s partner was former Rangers prospect Ryan Graves.
The bottom line is that Fox finished tied for fourth in points with 42 and his eight goals were tied with Hughes and behind Makar with 12.
Was he robbed?
The answer is no. It’s likely that he finished fourth in the voting (we won’t know until after they announce the winner) and the simple fact is that there are only three finalists. Fox had the misfortune to be a rookie the same season as Makar and Hughes, two of the best young defensemen to make their debuts.
How rare is it to have three superlative defensemen making their debuts in the same year? Looking at the Calder Trophy voting over the last 20 years, there has not been another season with three defensemen among the top four rookies. The most was two in 2019 when Rasmus Dahlin and Miro Heiskanen made the list. 11 times there was only one defenseman and seven times there were no defensemen among the top four rookies.
In fact, only three defensemen have won the award (Aaron Ekblad, Tyler Myers and Barret Jackman) so this season is extremely rare and to Fox’s disadvantage.
The hope has to be that Fox will see this as a challenge and that he will prove the voters wrong int the long run by having a better career than Hughes or Makar. Based on his work this season, it’s entirely possible. Rangers President John Davidson compares Fox to Sergei Zubov. Considering that Zubov was just elected to the Hall of Fame, let’s all hope that Davidson is right.
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