Connor Bedard is a Finalist for the Calder Trophy along with Brock Faber and Luke Hughes

The pre-season narrative was easy: The Calder Trophy will go to Connor Bedard. Today however, there is still some debate on which one of these three finalist will ultimately take home the prestigious award.

While the prior statement may sound like blasphemy to Blcakhawks' fans, the truth is that it is nearly impossible to compare these (other) two players against Connor Bedard as they are defenders. So from a metrics standpoint you can argue Bedard had the most points (61). Or from a different metric you can argue that Faber (47 points, a -1 in 24:58 TOI) meant more to team success.

A little closer look at the three players being considered for the award:

Connor Bedard (68 games played, 22g, 39a, 61pts - was a -44 on the season, 19:47 TOI)

Brock Faber (82 games played, 8g, 39a, 47pts, was a -1 on the season, 24:58 TOI)

Luke Hughes (82 games played, 9g, 38a, 47pts, was a -25 on the seaosn, 21:21 TOI)

Take the plus/minus statistic for instance, a player could step on to the ice for a change of lines and the other team scores and thus he now has a negative stat. Perhaps the roster the Blackhawks' put forth isn't up to the par that the Wild and Devils had this season. Do these factor in to the actual voters state of mind in who they will award the Calder? Time will tell, but from Blackhawk Up's perspective they most certainly should.

Hughes is two years older than Bedard while Faber is three years older than the eighteen year old Connor Bedard. Each of the defenseman had outstanding seasons, however there is one thing that each of the finalist share in commmon: That none of them made the playoffs. Faber (tied with Hughes in points) skated the most time out of the three. In comparison to just Connor Bedard, Brock Faber had over four hundred and twenty two minutes of more opportunities to help his season's final statistics. Again, this is a forward in comparison to a defender, so who is to say which metric holds more weight? Does a nearly .900 points per game average as a true eighteen year old hold more or does a nearly even rating in plus minus hold more as a twenty five minute per game defender? Only the voters can decide now, however if the city of Chicago had a vote.... we know who would win.