Connor Bedard leads in latest polling for the Calder Trophy

For a very brief period, it looked like Chicago Blackhawks rookie phenom Connor Bedard could not end up winning the Calder Trophy.

Then he returned from a fractured jaw injury that had him miss six weeks between early January and February and left no doubt who the best rookie in the NHL is.

Bedard leads all rookies in scoring with 60 points on the season. He is also the leader in the house to win the Calder Trophy after the season according to NHL.com's recent poll.

There are still some folks out there, mostly Minnesota Wild fans, who think Brock Faber deserves the top rookie honors. Those Faber truthers keep citing the out-of-date plus/minus stats.

NHL.com polled its writers and Bedard got 72 voting points and only three writers were crazy enough to not give Connor a first-place vote. Maybe those three still value plus/minus. Now, they could just really value defensemen or are Wild writers as Faber got the three of the 15 first-place votes.

Connor is going to win the Calder Trophy. He has played 15 fewer games than Faber and has one less assist on the season with 38. Imagine the numbers Bedard would have had he skated in all 80 games this season.

That is why it is silly to even debate Bedard's worthiness for the Calder Trophy. He has shown he has lived up to the hype before the draft. He is a draw that the NHL can use to grow the game among the mainstream audience. You might as well give him the trophy now so he can free up a night to work on his game instead of attending the NHL Honors Night.