The St. Louis Blues began the night of the NHL Awards having five opportunities to win an award, but only managed to bring home the Selke Trophy.
St. Louis Blues forward Ryan O’Reilly was the only player to bring home another trophy, winning the Selke Award. Jordan Binnington fell short on the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year, Craig Berube was unable to win the Jack Adams and general manager Doug Armstrong did not win GM of The Year.
Binnington was not a big favorite to take home the Calder Trophy, and the fact that Elias Pettersson won the award is not at all surprising. What is surprising, however, is that Binnington was a distant second place.
Speaking of second place, that is where Armstrong finished behind Bruins’ GM Don Sweeney. The GM of The Year is unique because it factors in the first two rounds of the playoffs, but Army still falling just short.
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Berube did a spectacular job getting the Blues into the playoffs after being in last place in early January. However, no one expected the Islanders to net over 100 points and Barry Trotz winning the award was an easy decision.
These awards do not mean anything, mainly because the Blues are coming off a Stanley Cup victory and the only hardware worth mentioning is the Cup itself, the Conn Smythe and the Campbell Bowl.
O’Reilly also fell short for the Lady Bing award as well, but because he won the Selke, we will focus on the positives. O’Reilly was everything the Blues could have asked for when they acquired him from the Buffalo Sabres last July.
Three players, a first and second-round pick seems significantly less of a package after O’Reilly helped the Blues win the Stanley Cup. O’Reilly played in all 26 playoff games for St. Louis, netting 23 points including goals in the last four Stanley Cup final games.
The regular season was no different for O’Reilly. The 28-year-old star did not miss a game, playing in all 82 regular season games.
In his first season with the Blues, O’Reilly finished second on the team in goals with 28, led the team in assists with 49, and led the team in points (77).
Looking past some of the offensive numbers for O’Reilly, the 10-year veteran committed just six penalties in 2018-2019. He had five game-winning goals, including the game-winner against the Toronto Maple Leafs, propelling the Blues to a franchise record 11 straight wins.
His faceoff percentage came as advertised. We knew he was one of the best in the league when the Blues acquired him, but the 56.9% rate is ridiculous, and it was evident all season long that he was leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.
The Blues may not have won every single award at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas Wednesday night, but they did capture their first Stanley Cup victory last Wednesday in Boston.