The Senators' NHL Awards Night History
Tonight is NHL Awards night, but I'll forgive you if you forgot - not a single Senator is nominated for an award. And to be quite honest, very few Sens have ever managed to be a winner at NHL Awards Night. In fact, not counting Dany Heatley, who won the Calder while with the Thrashers, only three Senators have won individual awards:
1995-96 Season - Daniel Alfredsson - Calder Memorial Trophy
Alfie was drafted in the sixth round back in 1994, but had a 61 point rookie season to win the Calder Memorial Trophy. He also managed to notch those points on a pitiful Senators team, which managed to rack up 59 losses while scoring a league-worst 191 goals for.
1998-99 Season - Jacques Martin - Jack Adams Trophy
Back in the 1997-98 season, the Senators finished fifth in the Northeast Division, and eighth in the conference. But in the 98-99 season, Martin managed to lead the team to a finish that found them first in the Northeast division, and second in the conference. It's a shame that success didn't carry into the playoffs - the Sens were swept in the first round.
2005-06 Season - Wade Redden - NHL Plus-Minus Award
Sure, plus-minus may be the most disputed statistic in the National Hockey League, but let's not tell Wade... that guy needs something like this to cling to. (Interesting side note: Redden shared the award that year with Michal Rozsival. The two of them now account for $11.5 million dollars of the NY Rangers cap space each year, or about 20% of the team's total cap space).