Photo Courtesy of Kate Frese
When Shayne Gostisbehere was called up from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Nov. 14, few were more reluctant for that to happen than Ron Hextall — the very GM that made the decision to call him up.
Hextall, of course, wants his young defensemen to grow and develop in the minor leagues, rather than make the immediate jump to the Flyers' blue line. It was perfectly understandable for a player like Gostisbehere, who was lost for the season around this time last year with a torn ACL.
But as the Flyers' blue line suffered injuries — notably, to Mark Streit — Hextall had no choice but to call somebody up, and Gostisbehre's two goals and 10 points in 14 games with the Phantoms fit the bill. It wasn't the prettiest set of circumstances that led to Gostisbehere's arrival with the big club, but he made an impact in his season debut — assisting on Wayne Simmonds' game-tying goal with 3:09 to play on Nov. 14 against Carolina.
Seven games later, the 22-year-old Gostisbehere continues to make an impact on the Flyers' blue line, and was a bright spot to watch in an otherwise tough November. Through eight games, the 'Ghost Bear' has three goals and five points. Of those three goals, two of them came as overtime winners within the past eight days — one last Monday against the Hurricanes, and one Friday against Nashville.
If Gostisbehere keeps this up, surely he has to be in the conversation for the Calder Memorial Trophy, no? Certainly, he's more in the conversation right now than he was at the beginning of the season. This season was supposed to be a barometer for how well he could develop after last year's significant injury, and he's already exceeding expectations.
When the 2015-16 opened up, it was assumed that the Calder Trophy would go to one of two wunderkinds — Edmonton's Connor McDavid, or Buffalo's Jack Eichel — both the No. 1 and No. 2 overall draft picks, respectively. But as McDavid suffered a broken collarbone (in a Nov. 3 game against the Flyers, no less) and will be out for the foreseeable future, the race opened up by a significant margin.
Currently, Chicago's Artemi Panarin leads all rookies in scoring, with seven goals and 23 points in 24 games played. Gostisbehere's five points are fourth amongst rookie defensemen, but the three players in front of him — Vancouver's Ben Hutton, Boston's Colin Miller and St. Louis' Colton Parayko — all have played at least 11 more games than Gostisbehere has.
Another factor hampering Gostisbehere's chances is the fact that defensemen winning the Calder is quite an unusual occurrence. Since the trophy was first awarded in 1932-33, just 11 blueliners have claimed the honor. Three defensemen have won the trophy since 2002-03 — then-St. Louis Blue Barret Jackman, then-Buffalo Sabre Tyler Myers (2009-10) and current Florida Panther Aaron Ekblad last season.
Jackman's rookie class in 2002-03 was relatively weak, and the only players of merit that he beat out for the trophy were Henrik Zetterberg and Rick Nash. Myers beat out prolific rookies such as John Tavares, Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene in a fairly-strong rookie class, and the jury is still out on last year's freshmen.
In each of the past three seasons, the Calder Trophy has been awarded to the player that was picked at No. 1 overall just the summer before — Ekblad, Nathan MacKinnon and Nail Yakupov. With McDavid out, that trend is likely to buck.
Considering how well Gostisbehere has performed in his brief time as a Flyer, it's hard to wrap one's head around the idea of sending him back to Allentown, although with Hextall's incredibly-patient approach, anything is possible. If he maintains this current pace, winning the Calder may very well be in his near future — after all, the rest of the NHL will take notice sooner or later.
The Flyers have accomplished quite a few feats throughout their 48 seasons, and a wide variety of players in their franchise history have often been lauded and awarded. Yet one thing that no Flyer has ever accomplished, to date, is win the Calder Memorial Trophy. If Gostisbehere continues this pace of play, he very well could be the first.
Of course, it's still too early to speculate who this year's Calder winner will be. After all, look no further than Filip Forsberg last year — a player who was widely-considered the favorite in the first half of last season, but failed to follow up on that performance in the second half. Shayne Gostisbehere's first few games have been strong, and it's worth seeing where he can go from here.
Rob Riches is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter @Riches61
