Into The Weeds: Can Logan Stankoven win the 2025 Calder Trophy?

Being good is not good enough. He has to be the best.

Logan Stankoven; the little engine that can and will.

Every Dallas fan’s favorite short king is obviously primed for varying degrees of greatness, but greatness is not exclusive to victory green. Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, and Yaroslav Askarov in San Jose; Matvei Michkov in Philadelphia; Dustin Wolf in Calgary; Cutter Gauthier in Anaheim; Lane Hutson in Montreal; Rutger McGroarty in Pittsburgh. It’s an impressive list, and probably one of the most stacked in a long time.

However, the history of Calder nominees tends to be equally impressive. Sure, it was Connor Bedard’s hardware to lose last season, but Brock Faber and Luke Hughes look like elite impact defenders. Owen Power had a case over Matty Beniers in my opinion. We can skip 2022 for the obnoxious Michael Bunting discussion (sorry Gavin), but Kirill Kaprizov vs. Jason Robertson, Cale Makar vs. Quinn Hughes — it’ll be a tight race, as they usually are.

In that way, Stankoven is both well-positioned to win the Calder Trophy, and not well-positioned. It’s a crowded field, complicated by candidates at different positions. But he’s got one thing over everybody: legit NHL experience. And not just a few courtesy games at the end of a lost regular season to loosen the training wheels. We’re talking regular and postseason experience all the way up to the Western Conference Finals. Inasmuch as a player can have a ton of NHL experience and still be Calder eligible, Stankoven has it.

But will it be enough? That’s the question maybe the data can help answer.

Note to non-paying subscribers: First off, don’t ever feel bad for not being a paid subscriber. The fact that you’re here to begin with is something I cherish. That’s not what today’s “spiel” is for. Besides, everyone is always invited to the Discord if you want a more casual hockey environment. Second, today’s note is simply to say that IF you are thinking about becoming a paid subscriber, now’s the time. This link will be a calendar to everything posted here, updated in real time, so you get to see exactly what you’re getting, and when you’re getting it.