Auston Matthews was your rookie of the year, and he joined Mitch Marner on the All-Rookie team. There’s more to what went down tonight, though; they joined a few other familiar faces in getting votes for other awards.

Besides Matthews’ victory, where he picked up all but three 1st-place votes..

When you’ve got three of the top six rookies, you know the future is bright.

I genuinely thought with Toronto’s resurgence and his “being due”, Mike Babcock had this in the bag. Of course, the hockey world felt Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky’s save perc… err, John Tortorella’s redemption story to be a bit better, so he led the way. Babcock narrowly beat out Edmonton’s Todd McLellan for second place, picking up 24 first place votes, 15 second place votes, and 17 third place votes.

We may pick apart every one of his transactions, but Lou Lamoriello and his staff have generally moved the needle in the right direction over the past year and got some credit for it. Lamoriello picked up 5 first place votes, 3 second place, and a pair of 3rd place votes, but finished behind Paul Dorion (Ottawa), Peter Chiarelli (Edmonton) and David Poile (Nashville), who won the award. It should be noted that Lamoriello had more first place votes than Dorion, who climbed up the ranks by finishing second a bunch.

Looks like resident TLN vlogger/podcaster/yeller Steve Dangle was on to something with the #KadriForSelke movement. Toronto’s super shutdown centre Nazem Kadri got shown some love, finishing 20th in the award for best defensive forward. Kadri’s vote collection involved a second place vote, and two votes in third and fifth. Don’t ask me how TJ Oshie, a spot ahead of him thanks to a pair of first place votes, got into the conversation at all. Patrice Bergeron took home the actual trophy.

We all know that Matthews is a good hockey boy, and he showed it by taking just 14 penalty minutes despite spending so much of his time along the boards and in front of the net, for this, he earned a sixth place spot in Lady Byng voting, including two first place votes, 14 in second, 12 in third, and 15 in both fourth and fifth. Johnny Gaudreau was the actual winner.

Lastly, Matthews was vaguely in the MVP conversation. He didn’t get any votes in the top two, but two third place votes, a fourth, and four fifths placed him in 10th place, ahead of players like Alex Ovechkin, Ryan Suter, Victor Hedman, and Vladimir Tarasenko. Maxing out at third is interesting, seeing as I think that, in a league with Connor and Sid on the top for now, that’s going to be his next stepping stone. I don’t think we’re very far away from him being a finalist.