Biggest Surprise Entrants into NHL's Major Award Races

When it comes to the annual NHL Awards, the usual suspects are never far away from the conversation.

Connor McDavid, Cale Makar and Connor Hellebuyck are all players who have won it before and continue to be great on the ice.

Here, though, we want to consider the names who have come out of the blue to make their case for why they need to be taken seriously as contenders for this season's individual prizes.

(Awarded to the league's top point-scorer.)

When you peruse the list of the NHL top scorers, a few Vancouver Canucks players are among the league's elite, but it's J.T. Miller who really stands out.

The 30-year-old has been an outstanding scorer the past few years with Vancouver. Two seasons ago, he had 99 points and was ninth in the league in scoring. Last season, he put up 82 points and still landed in the league's top 30 point-scorers, but what he's doing now is truly remarkable.

This season, the Canucks are one of the most exciting teams in the league, with Miller leading the points charge alongside Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.

Miller is averaging 1.43 points per game and is on course for 117 points, which would shatter his career high of 99. He's also second in the league in points with 40, behind Nikita Kucherov's 47.

What makes this even more surprising is how close Miller came to being traded to Pittsburgh last year while the Canucks and Penguins were scrambling for ways to fix up their rosters.

Sometimes the best trades are the ones that aren't made, and that's definitely the case for Vancouver and Miller.

(Awarded to the league's top rookie.)

Finding great rookies not named Connor Bedard this season hasn't been too difficult, but finding one who may not be getting quite the kind of deserved hype is also tricky.

Other first-year players are also making a good impression, including Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlsson, Marco Rossi and Luke Hughes.

However, Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber might be having the most underrated first season.

The 21-year-old plays as though he's been in the league for years. With 12 points in 26 games, the raw offensive numbers don't stand out especially, but when you factor those points with how strong of a defender he is, it makes his play that much more impressive.

Faber averages the most ice time per game of any rookie at 23:28, which is second on the Wild behind Jonas Brodin. His five-on-five game is beyond strong, and even though his defensive game is more renowned, his 55.6 percent expected goals for is among the best on the Wild. He's helping prevent and create goals at an outstanding rate, which could get him into Norris Trophy conversation.

Acquiring Faber from the Los Angeles Kings in June 2022 might turn into one of the best pickups Minnesota has made in years if he continues on this kind of ascent.

(Awarded to the league's best defensive forward.)

Some fans might balk at our pick of Sean Couturier as being our surprise entrant into the Selke Trophy race, but think about what his career has been like the past few years.

The 2020 winner didn't play at all last season and featured in only 29 games in 2021-2022 as he dealt with an assortment of injuries. Before then, he was one of the NHL's top young defensive forwards. He could score goals and rack up points, but he also excelled at shutting down opposing top scorers.

Upon his return this season, there were obvious concerns about what level he could reach after missing so much time. Instead, the 31-year-old has been as strong as ever in one of the best stories of the early season.

Couturier getting back to elite defender status has been inspiring, and while there was a void to be filled after Patrice Bergeron's retirement when it came to the Selke, the Flyers forward's return shows he's ready to battle it out with the league's top defensive forwards.

(Awarded to the league's top goal-scorer.)

The chase for the Rocket Richard Trophy is always a thrilling ride.

Scoring a goal is one of the hardest things to do in professional sports, but Vancouver's Brock Boeser is making it look like child's play this season.

The 26-year-old is tied with Toronto's Auston Matthews for second in the league with 18 goals, behind Nikita Kucherov's 19, but he is scoring on one out of every four shots on goal he gets.

Boeser is shooting 24.7 percent this season, and while some regression on that pace is expected, he is tied with Leon Draisaitl for the NHL lead with eight power-play goals.

Cashing in on chances on fewer shots on the power play while holding steady shooting 20 percent at five-on-five means a guy could fill it up on high shooting percentages. The Canucks generate enough offense and chances that players can cash in all over the place and buck the underlying stats.

And Boeser is having the kind of start that makes it hard not to root for him to keep scoring.

(Awarded to the league's best goaltender.)

There have been a handful of surprises among the top goalies around the NHL this season, but seeing Arizona's Connor Ingram among the league's best netminders is a stunner.

The 26-year-old entered the season as the backup to Karel Vejmelka, but through the first two months of the season, his play has seen him become the No. 1 while putting the Coyotes firmly in the race for the playoffs in the Western Conference.

In 17 games (16 starts), Ingram is 11-5-0 with a .920 save percentage and 2.52 goals-against average and two shutouts. According to Money Puck, Ingram has saved 9.4 goals above expected in all situations, which is eighth-best in the league by its standards.

Ingram has always had solid numbers as he's come up through the ECHL and AHL. And now that he's gotten the opportunity to play more often for the Coyotes, he's showing that his strong work in the minors was not a fluke.

(Awarded to the league's best all-around defenseman.)

The Norris Trophy might be the most competitive field for an individual award in the NHL. The league is teeming with elite talent on the blue line, and it's been no different this season.

The likes of Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Victor Hedman and Josh Morrissey are all having huge starts to the year. But there are a couple of new names to throw into the mix, and Edmonton's Evan Bouchard may be one of the most exciting.

The 24-year-old is third among defensemen in scoring, trailing only Hughes and Makar. His eight goals and 20 assists for the Oilers have given them a new weapon to drive their potent attack and help supply Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

Even though Bouchard is crushing it on the power play with half of his points coming on the man advantage, he's also driving possession (60.8 percent shot attempts for) and scoring chance quality (62.9 percent expected goals for) at an elite level at five-on-five as well.

He has rounded out his game the past couple years, but he's taken things to a new level this season.

Bouchard belongs in the discussion with the other presumed favorites for the Norris, but it'll be tough for him to crack through the top two with the way Hughes and Makar are playing this season.

Still, he's found his way into the conversation this season, and if the Oilers can figure things out more as the year goes on, his stock will only rise.

(Awarded to the league's MVP.)

While players such as Nikita Kucherov, Artemi Panarin, David Pastrnak, Nathan MacKinnon and Quinn Hughes may be getting a lot of the early buzz about the Hart Trophy as the NHL MVP, the Florida Panthers are piling up wins much thanks in part to the play of Sam Reinhart.

The 28-year-old has exploded since joining Florida and put up 33 and 31 goals in the past two seasons. This year, he's sixth in the NHL in scoring, and his 17 goals are two behind Kucherov for the league lead.

The Panthers have a solidly balanced offense, but it's Reinhart who leads the way with 37 points, nine more than Aleksander Barkov and 14 more than Carter Verhaeghe who are second and third, respectively, on the team.

We all knew the Panthers were going to be a tough team to beat, especially after their run to the Stanley Cup Final a year ago, but the expectation was that players like Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk would likely be the ones to lead the way.

Even though Reinhart was a big-time producer the past two seasons, he wasn't the one driving the bus for them. It's been a different story this season, and it couldn't have come at a better time because he's due to be a free agent in July.

If he keeps up the goal scoring and racking up points while helping the Panthers climb the ranks in the East, it'll be difficult to ignore his MVP case.