New York Islanders defenceman Matthew Schaefer has been selected as the NHL’s Calder Trophy winner in unanimous fashion on Wednesday.
Schaefer becomes the first unanimous selection since 1992-93 when Teemu Selanne took home the honour. He’s the 6th Islander to win the trophy in franchise history, joining Denis Potvin, Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy, Bryan Berard, and Mathew Barzal.
At just 18 years, 223 days old, he becomes the youngest Calder winner in NHL history after a record setting rookie campaign. His 23 goals and 59 points were both league records for an 18 year old blue liner, as the 1st overall pick paced his peers in ice time this past season.
The teenage phenom was surprised with the trophy during a live interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America”. Schaefer’s father and brother, alongside Matt Martin and his family were on site to present him with the award.
“We’ve done a lot as a family. My mom’s helped me and my family so much with everything. We’ve had some tough losses, but it hasn’t stopped us as a family. We’ve gotten a lot closer,” a tearful Schaefer said. “This definitely means a lot. This year was super important to me.”
Schaefer earned all 198 first place votes on the ballots, beating out Ivan Demidov (2nd) and Beckett Sennecke (3rd) to add to his trophy case.
Photo: Brandon Zeman. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.