Blackhawks: Should Dominik Kubalik Been Voted Higher?

Chicago Blackhawks rookie Dominik Kubalik was voted third in the Calder Trophy race. Should he have been voted higher?

It’s hard to tell where Chicago Blackhawks rookie Dominik Kubalik was going to finish in the voting, as he was a late bloomer this season. We saw Kubalik finally get talked about in the new year, as Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar were talked about all season as the top 2 rookies.

Hughes and Makar had fantastic seasons, but Kubalik was the only one to hit 30-goals out of all rookies. If Kubalik would have added more assists, he would have had at least more second-place votes.

Kubalik had just 2 second-place votes, which isn’t enough. The reason why he didn’t get more is that he was a late bloomer in the conversation. Hughes and Makar were talked about all season.

At the end of the day, third-place is nice for Kubalik. He was recognized by the Pro Hockey Writing Association. He shouldn’t have won the award, as I didn’t expect him too – but he should have had more than 2 second-place votes.

Chicago has a solid young forward in Dominik Kubalik, and the future for him is very bright. I’ll take third-place if he ends up being a star in this league.

Let’s just hope Stan Bowman doesn’t get rid of him as he did with Artemi Panarin.

Kubalik’s contract will be interesting, as I am curious if the team looks to sign him long-term or they give him a short-term deal. If they can get long-term for a cheaper price, it’s worth it. If they want to test him out again with a short-term deal to see if he gets better, the only risk is he’d become too expensive for playing just as well as he did in 2020.