With the regular season winding down, it is time to hand out some hardware. Some of the awards are easy. The Richard Trophy goes to the player who scores the most goals (Steven Stamkos) while the Art Ross goes to the player who accumulates the most points (Evgeni Malkin).
There are others, however, that require a broader view and a deeper look, and that's where an advanced statistical lens reveals some very interesting winners. Start with the James Norris Memorial Trophy, awarded to the top "defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position."
The short list for Norris caliber defensemen has four names on it: Erik Karlsson of Ottawa, Shea Weber of Nashville, Zdeno Chara of Boston and Nicklas Lidstrom of Detroit.
The Ottawa blueliner is tied for 10th in the NHL in scoring and has 25 more points than the next-best defensemen, Boston Bruins D-man Chara and Florida Panthers D-man Brian Campbell. Weber has been stellar for Nashville at both ends of the ice, is sixth in the league among defensemen with 49 points and also fifth in time on ice at 26:18 per contest. Chara, who won the Norris Trophy in 2009, is simply one of the best at shutting down the opposition's top players while playing for a Cup-contending team, and Lidstrom has only been voted the league's best defenseman seven out of the past 10 years.
So, despite all that, does St. Louis Blues blueliner Alex Pietrangelo deserve the Norris over those four heavyweights? Absolutely he does.
First, Pietrangelo has 50 points, enough offense to put him ahead of Weber (49) and within striking distance of Chara (52).
Second, St. Louis is on the verge of allowing the fewest goals per game since the league expanded from the Original Six in 1967-68. The Blues' goals-against per game average of 1.86 is better than the New Jersey Devils, who allowed 2.0 goals per game when they set the standard of stinginess during the 2003-04 season. And Pietrangelo has faced the stiffest competition on the Blues this season among defensemen, according to Behind the Net's Corsi Relative to Quality of Competition (CORSI Rel QoC) metric, essentially making him the most important defenseman on a roster that is surrendering goals at a historically low rate.
Lastly, there might not be a more versatile defenseman in the NHL. Pietrangelo logs huge minutes on the power play (2:51 per game) and the penalty kill (3:09). In fact, Pietrangelo has logged more penalty-kill minutes (245:55) than Karlsson (43:53), Weber (172:14), Lidstrom (118:45) and Chara (214:48). Plus, when Pietrangelo is on the ice at even-strength with the score tied (which allows us to remove score effects from team play), the Blues see more than 57 percent of shots at net in their favor, more than both Norris front-runners Karlsson (52 percent) and Weber (49 percent).
And Pietrangelo is doing this for a team that could still finish with the most points in the league after being left for dead in October.
Hart
Some purists feel that a goaltender should not win the Hart Trophy, awarded to the "player adjudged most valuable to his team" in the National Hockey League. But this year there is a goaltender worthy of Hart consideration, and it is not Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers. Instead, the most valuable player to his team is Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings. Yes, even over Pittsburgh's star center Evgeni Malkin.
Quick's save percentage (.931) and goals-against average (1.89) are among the best in the league, and he recently set the franchise record for most shutouts in a season with 10. However, he gets just 2.01 goals of support per 60 minutes this season, second fewest only to Anaheim's Jonas Hiller (1.92).
The Kings have nine losses when Quick has allowed a single goal. Five of those are 1-0 defeats and four more have been 2-1 decisions in the shootout. Yet the Kings lead the Pacific Division and are currently the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. Take away Quick's stellar goaltending and the Kings are most likely not even in playoff contention.
Calder
This appears to be a two-horse race between Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog and Edmonton's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Landeskog, the No. 2 overall pick in last summer's draft, appears to be the favorite. He is second among rookies in goals (22) and is tied with Nugent-Hopkins for the lead in points (51). However, both of those two benefit from time on the power play, which is why the Rangers' Carl Hagelin is more deserving.
When you look at points earned during even-strength, Hagelin's 2.51 per 60 minutes is not only higher than both Landeskog (1.79) and Nugent-Hopkins (1.97), but it also bests Jonathan Toews (2.50), Henrik Sedin (2.48) and Phil Kessel (2.42).
Plus, Hagelin does it while playing with inferior linemates than either of the other Calder hopefuls. Behind the Net compiles a metric called Corsi Relative to Quality of Teammates, which measures how good your linemates are at puck possession. The higher the number, the better the talent surrounding you. Landeskog (2.93) and Nugent-Hopkins (2.34) both play with players who can drive possession. Hagelin (0.01) has to do it alone. And despite this, the Rangers see 57 percent of shots at net in their favor during a tie game when Hagelin is on the ice, compared to just the 52 percent the Avalanche get with Landeskog or the 50 percent Edmonton sees with Nugent-Hopkins.
Sure, the boxcar stats like goals and assists support the two favorites, but when it comes down to what drives winning in the long-term -- puck possession and elevating those around you -- Hagelin has them both beat by a sizable margin.
Selke
It looks like conventional wisdom and advanced stats will agree on this year's Selke winner: Boston's Patrice Bergeron.
Defensively, Bergeron plays against some of the toughest competition the opposition can put on the ice, and his Corsi relative to his teammates (a proxy for puck possession) is 18.6 with more than 59 percent of shots going Boston's way when he skates. Offensively he has 22 goals and 39 helpers in 79 games.
Bergeron also leads Bruins forwards in ice time (18:35 per game), and that includes 2:30 when they have the man advantage and another 1:49 with the league's 10th best penalty-killing unit.
Vezina
Los Angeles netminder Jonathan Quick turned in a performance good enough to earn most valuable player, but the choice for best goalie in the league is likely another convergence of public opinion and fancy stats. While Quick has been the most valuable, in my statistical estimation, New York Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist has been the best. Lundqvist ranks among the league leaders in save percentage (.931), shutouts (eight) and goals-against average (1.93) giving him the inside track for the Vezina Trophy.
Where Lundqvist really shined this season is keeping his team in games when the Rangers found themselves trailing. During those even-strength situations where the Rangers were down a goal, King Henrik was the league's best at keeping the puck out of the net, posting a .944 save percentage. On those rare occasions when the Rangers found themselves trailing by two, he was even better (.955 save percentage), helping the Rangers salvage points en route to being the best team in the Eastern Conference.
Neil Greenberg specializes in analyzing hockey's microstats. He contributes to The Washington Post's Capitals Insider. You can follow him on Twitter here.