NUGENT-HOPKINS UP FOR CALDER TROPHY

Former Red Deer Rebels star Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been named one of the three finalists for the Calder trophy, presented annually to the National Hockey League’s Top Rookie.

The 19-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., enjoyed an outstanding first season in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers, netting 18 goals and 34 assists for 52 points in just 62 games to finish tied for the lead in scoring among rookies.  Nugent-Hopkins was selected by the Oilers with the first overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft.

A 6’1”, 175-lb center, Nugent-Hopkins owned the best points-per-game average of any first-year player in the NHL this season.  He missed 20 games due to injury.

Selected by the Rebels with the first overall pick in the 2008 WHL Bantam Draft, Nugent-Hopkins spent two seasons in Red Deer with the Rebels, scoring 57 goals and 177 points in 141 regular-season games.  He was named the WHL Rookie of the Year in 2010 after scoring 24 goals and 65 points in 67 games as a 16-year-old, and was named to the WHL Eastern Conference First All-Star team in 2011 after putting up 106 points, including a WHL-leading 75 assists, in 2010-11.

The youngest every-day player in the NHL this season, Nugent-Hopkins scored a goal in his first NHL game, put up a hat trick in just his third game, and recorded five assists in a game versus Chicago in November.

Nugent-Hopkins joins Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog and New Jersey Devils forward Adam Henrique as the three finalists for the 2012 Calder trophy.

The last WHL graduate to win the Calder trophy was former Kelowna Rocket Tyler Myers, who won the NHL’s Rookie of the Year award in 2010 in his first season with the Buffalo Sabres.