Mark Giordano dominates Norris balloting (and other NHL Awards voting notes)

The Calgary Flames were one of the top teams in the National Hockey League in the 2018-19 season, so it makes sense that they were prominently featured throughout the voting for the 2019 NHL Awards. While Mark Giordano’s dominance in the Norris voting was the top story, the team was well-represented in other races.

Giordano won in a walk, with 165 first place votes, five second place votes and one third place votes. There were 171 voters in the PHWA this year, so Giordano was (a) on every ballot and (b) the first choice of the vast majority of the voters.

To put Giordano’s win in context, it’s the most one-sided Norris race since Ray Bourque won it unanimously in 1990.

Sean Monahan didn’t win the Lady Byng, finishing a distant third place in the balloting. But three other Flames players received votes for being nice young men: Johnny Gaudreau finished ninth, Elias Lindholm finished tied for 30th, while Noah Hanifin finished 48th.

Flames general manager Brad Treliving finished sixth in voting for the GM of the Year Award.

Perennial Selke candidate Mikael Backlund was eighth in balloting, while new teammate Elias Lindholm was in 10th place. Derek Ryan got one fifth place vote and finished tied for 29th.

First-year Flames head coach Bill Peters narrowly missed out on being a Jack Adams Award finalist. He was fourth in balloting, but finished just one point behind third place finisher Craig Berube. Had Berube received one fewer vote, or Peters one more, then the Flames bench boss could’ve been hanging out poolside with our pal Pat Steinberg rather than… well, not doing that.

Gaudreau finished fourth in voting, but actually had more first place votes than Oilers superstar Connor McDavid – by a two-to-one margin. Giordano finished ninth in MVP voting.

Giordano was also named a First Team All-Star. As with the Norris, he led in voting by a substantial margin and was the only defender on every single voter’s ballot.

Gaudreau finished third at left wing – behind First Team All Star Alex Ovechkin and Second Team All-Star Brad Marchand – and somehow also received a second place vote on right wing, a position he does not play.