5 way-too-early frontrunners for the 2026-27 Calder Trophy

Regular-season hockey is only a stone’s throw away, and what higher option to rejoice than to make some predictions?

And it is solely becoming we begin with rookie of the 12 months.

Though most of them have but to take to the big-league ice, the Calder Trophy race is sure to be a good one given the energy of this NHL freshman class. Highlighted by just a few top-end 2026 draftees and prospects able to leap to the NHL, anticipate to see some first-years come up massive for his or her golf equipment this 12 months.

With that in thoughts, let’s take a way-too-early take a look at 5 gamers that might be frontrunners to win the 2027 Calder Trophy.

Call it divine intervention or only a well timed stroke of luck, however the Toronto Maple Leafs received the draft lottery with simply 8.5 per cent odds and having missed the playoffs for the primary time in practically a decade. But both approach, on June 26, the Buds welcomed Gavin McKenna into the fold, and the 18-year-old joins the membership of first-overall picks to make the instant soar to the NHL. 

McKenna will undoubtedly face extra scrutiny than some other rookie, battling the burden of his draft capital whereas balancing the expectations of a market identified for its dedication to hockey. But he’s bought the skillset to again it up and comes into the large leagues having confirmed himself a prolific scorer at each step.

In his last 12 months with the Medicine Hat Tigers, McKenna had 41 objectives and 129 factors in 56 regular-season video games, earlier than including 38 factors in 16 playoff video games as his Tigers got here simply shy of a Memorial Cup. In 133 WHL video games, McKenna had 244 factors. After shifting to the NCAA, he had 51 factors (15 objectives, 36 assists) in 35 video games, ending the 12 months sturdy after beginning sluggish with Penn State.

New Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller will give McKenna each alternative to succeed with power-play reps and top-six minutes, and he’ll be underneath the tutelage of among the league’s prime skills in Auston Matthews and William Nylander.

Just three first-overall picks previously decade have received the Calder Trophy: Matthew Schaefer (2026), Connor Bedard (2024) and Matthews (2017).

It could be fairly the feat for the Hutson household if Cole adopted up his brother Lane’s 2025 Calder Trophy with a victory of his personal. In reality, it will be a benchmark for your complete league, as no set of brothers have ever received the rookie-of-the-year title within the NHL’s historical past. 

It’s completely potential, too, because the youthful Hutson has confirmed in a restricted pattern dimension that he’s capable of hold with among the greatest on the planet. 

The 20-year-old American bought his first style of big-league motion on the finish of final season after his Boston University Terriers did not qualify for the Frozen Four. He suited up for 14 video games with the Washington Capitals and instantly made an influence, scoring his first NHL aim in his debut. He tallied two extra objectives and 10 extra factors earlier than the season closed, producing at a 0.71 point-per-game clip as a then-19-year-old defenceman. 

He already has some {hardware} to his title, too, because the St. Louis native received the Tim Taylor Award for the NCAA’s most excellent freshman in 2025 and closed out his school hockey profession with 80 factors in 74 video games.

Apropos of nothing, the previous two Calder Trophy winners have been defencemen.

No incoming rookie had a extra productive pre-season than Ivar Stenberg. In three exhibition video games, the 18-year-old Swede proved precisely why he was nonetheless a contender to be the No. 1 decide proper up till draft day in June.

Now he enters his debut season with all of the wind in his sails, having tallied 5 factors in three pre-season video games with the San Jose Sharks, together with a hat-trick efficiency in a 10-0 thumping of the Anaheim Ducks.

Of course, the pre-season is on no account indicative of how Stenberg will fare when the competitors hits a brand new degree, however he is proven he is bought all of the instruments to make an instantaneous influence. In reality, he is already used to enjoying alongside these a lot older than he’s, as he spent all of final season enjoying within the top-tier Swedish Hockey League, potting 11 objectives and 33 factors in 43 video games.

He’ll now be part of a Sharks crew that figures to make some noise within the Pacific Division, with Macklin Celebrini on the helm and an entire host of younger expertise on the verge of breaking out.

The final time a Shark received the Calder Trophy was in 2001. Can Stenberg break that drought?

In only a transient stint final season, Porter Martone made an impression.

The 2025 sixth-overall decide made his NHL debut for the Philadelphia Flyers on April 18 and produced at over a point-per-game clip by way of 9 regular-season video games, tallying 4 objectives and 6 assists, earlier than including 5 factors in 10 playoff video games.

He’s additionally bought the clutch gene, as his first NHL aim was an extra time winner in his league debut.

Martone, like McKenna, was one among many who took benefit of the brand new settlement between the CHL and NCAA, and after three years and 178 video games within the CHL — throughout which era he amassed 89 objectives and 204 factors — joined Michigan State University for his post-draft 12 months. There, he tallied 25 objectives and 50 factors in 35 video games.

Though Martone tallied only one help in three pre-season video games, the winger has already earned the belief of head coach Rick Tocchet and, barring any tweak earlier than Wednesday’s season opener, Martone will open the season on the Flyers’ prime line.

No Flyers rookie has ever taken dwelling the Calder Trophy.

After years of basement-dwelling within the NHL, the Chicago Blackhawks are poised to take a step ahead of their rebuild, and Anton Frondell figures to be a giant issue of their success this season.

Frondell, taken third general on the 2025 draft, made the soar to North America from Sweden late final season and, consequently, was capable of swimsuit up for 12 regular-season video games. During that point, he tallied three objectives and 9 factors and averaged 17:42 per recreation.

In his post-draft 12 months, Frondell developed right into a prolific goal-scorer, managing to tally 20 markers enjoying within the SHL, Sweden’s prime league, as an 18-year-old.

Only time will inform if that scoring prowess will translate into one of the best league on the planet, however with an harm sidelining Bedard to start the season, Frondell could have an early alternative to step up for the Blackhawks and fill that hole in manufacturing.

With the return of Patrick Kane to the franchise, Frondell could have a three-time Stanley Cup champ — who has a Calder of his personal — to study from.