Don Cherry does not believe Elias Pettersson deserves the Calder.

Cherry with another controversial opinion.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Don Cherry does not believe Elias Pettersson deserves the Calder.
Dom Gagne/CSM/Zuma

This is going to make fans in Vancouver very angry.

National Hockey League legend Don Cherry has never been one to shy away from a controversial opinion and while I would never dare to accuse the surely old former coach of bias, many of his most controversial takes have often involved European players. This latest one is absolutely no exception.

As many of you know there has been plenty of debate this season regarding which player deserves to win the Calder Trophy as the National Hockey League's rookie of the year. While it's true that there has been a lot of debate, that debate has centered almost entirely on two players. The first, and almost certainly the favorite, has been Vancouver Canucks breakout sensation Elias Pettersson, a prolific goal scorer who impressed fans around the league this season with his incredible game sense and skill. The other is Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, viewed as a generational talent on the blue line and the first overall pick in last year's National Hockey League Entry Draft. 

Cherry however it appears would rather see neither of these guys win and on a recent episode of Coach's Corner revealed instead that he would like to see a good Canadian boy win the award, St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington. I must admit that if you were purely using the eye test it would be difficult to object too much to Cherry's position. Binnington practically single handedly turned around the Blues season taking them from last place and carrying them all the way to a spot in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

When you look at his numbers Cherry's argument certainly seems to add up as well, Binnington has recorded a very impressive 1.89 goals against average and an equally strong .927 percentage over the entire 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season. There is just one problem, Binnington would appear in a total of 32 games for the Blues this season and that seems like far too few games played to name someone the rookie of the year. In fact it is very similar to the situation that saw Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid denied the Calder in his outstanding rookie campaign, due in large part to how much time he missed due to injury. 

Do you agree with Cherry's take? Or is he out to lunch on this one?

[pub]


Source: