One stat Connor Bedard and Brock Faber should not be compared in the Calder Trophy race

For some reason, the debate on who should win the Calder Trophy is still going on.

The race has come down to Chicago Blackhawks rookie phenom Connor Bedard and Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber.

However, the only reason there are still whispers that Faber deserves consideration for top the rookie honor is coming from the Wild (a subscription is required to access). The debate should have been over the moment Bedard returned from a broken jaw that wiped out almost six weeks of his first season and went on a tear.

Since he returned on February 15th, Connor has scored seven goals and registered 19 assists. He doubled his assist production during that period as he had 18 assists before he went on IR.

There would be no debate had Bedard not missed six weeks with that jaw injury. While he was out, it allowed Faber to rack up some more assists to catch Bedard in that area. Remember, if we are comparing offensive production between a forward and a defenseman, we need to focus on that area. Bedard has 37 while Faber has 36.

The pro-Faber camp loves to point out how much ice time he is registering. It is impressive for a rookie to already be trusted enough to average over 25 minutes of ice time a night. At the same time, those Wild fans are overlooking that Faber might not technically be the best defenseman playing in his first full NHL season.

Alex Vlasic is having a good season in his own right and is not eligible for the Calder since he played one extra game during his introduction to the NHL in his career. No matter what you give the pro-Faber crowd as an argument as to why he is not going to win the Calder Trophy, they try to counter it, especially with one stat comparison.