{"id":136718,"date":"2023-04-09T10:30:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-09T14:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=136718"},"modified":"2023-04-09T08:53:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T12:53:45","slug":"can-matias-maccelli-win-the-calder-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/04\/09\/can-matias-maccelli-win-the-calder-trophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Coyotes’ Matias Maccelli Making His Case For Calder Trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

During what has mostly been a rough year for the Coyotes, Matias Maccelli<\/a> has thrived. The 2019 4th-round pick has turned heads as he is in the same conversation as Matty Beniers<\/a> and Owen Power<\/a> for the Calder Trophy. Coming into the season, there were little expectations for Maccelli, especially on a rebuilding Coyotes<\/a> team with not much offense. This has not been the case for Maccelli as he is having a breakout season in the desert. Much of this success is due to his amazing passing skill set and having that sixth sense on the ice.<\/p>\n

What is helping Arizona Coyotes Matias Maccelli have a breakout rookie campaign, and can it continue into next year?<\/p>\n

Who is Matias Maccelli?<\/h3>\n

When looking at the top candidates for this year’s Calder Trophy, many look and wonder who Matias Maccelli is. Maccelli, who is just 22 years old, was drafted with the 98th pick in the 2019 NHL<\/a> (National Hockey League) Entry Draft. Playing with the Arizona Coyotes AHL (American Hockey League) affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners<\/a> last year, he exceeded expectations. He notched 14 goals and showed his elusive passing abilities recording 43 assists.<\/p>\n

That success from last year has led to a phenomenal rookie year this season. As stated above, Maccelli has been known to be more of a pass-first type of player. Head Coach Andre Tourigny<\/a> jokingly said<\/a> \u201cI always joke to him, I say, \u2018You can pass the puck to their goalie,\u2019\u201d Tourigny said. \u201cI don\u2019t say, \u2018Shoot the puck.\u2019 I say, \u2018Pass the puck in the mesh.\u2019” Maccelli has 37 assists on the year and looking elite whenever he has the puck on his stick.<\/p>\n

Breakout Season Will Led to Many More With Coyotes<\/h3>\n

Right now, Maccelli leads all rookies with 0.75 points per game. If it wasn’t for the 18 games he missed due to injury, he could very well lead all rookies in points. Bill Armstrong also had some positive words regarding Maccellis play saying this<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s been one of the driving forces of our team,\u201d Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong<\/a> said. \u201cHe just creates so much with his skating, puck handling and elite passing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, Maccelli is on pace for 38 assists which would be the second most in Coyotes history by a rookie. The only one who had more is none other than Clayton Keller<\/a>.\u00a0 Despite being one of the top rookies this year, Maccelli is already looking ahead to next year, saying this<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m still not the biggest guy out there, but there\u2019s a little more weight on me and a little more strength,\u201d Maccelli said. \u201cThat was the biggest thing.\u201d With Maccelli looking more and more comfortable each game, it will only lead to more success.<\/p>\n

Calder Trophy Odds<\/h3>\n

The desired Calder Trophy. The award goes to the NHL’s best rookie. Right now, the fourth-round pick is in the talks of winning. As it stands now, Arizona Coyotes Matias Maccelli is second in the NHL with 46 points. He is ten points behind the former second-overall draft pick Matty Beniers, who has been on a tear in Seattle<\/a>. While the injury he sustained hurts his case, it should not define the season he has. Here are some quotes<\/a> on what voters think of Maccelli.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Matty Beniers and [Buffalo defenseman] Owen Power are the top two, but there are probably six guys who could have a case for third,\u201d one voter said. \u201cI think [Vegas goalie] Logan Thompson would be third for me. Maccelli\u2019s per-game numbers and not relying on power-play inflated stats make a strong case for him, but Thompson probably deserves a little extra credit if it\u2019s a coin flip between the two for essentially saving Vegas\u2019 season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another voter goes on to say \u201cHe\u2019s definitely on my ballot and I want to say he\u2019s maybe third right now as I think about it,\u201d another voter wrote. \u201cI\u2019ve been most impressed by his playmaking ability and how he seems to be in the right place all the time. He\u2019s really given the Coyotes a complementary player to add to the guys they want to fill the net, be it [Clayton] Keller or [Lawson] Crouse.\u201d The Coyotes have a bright future ahead when Maccelli plays.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During what has mostly been a rough year for the Coyotes, Matias Maccelli has thrived. The 2019 4th-round pick has turned heads as he is in the same conversation as Matty Beniers and Owen Power for the Calder Trophy. Coming into the season, there were little expectations for Maccelli, especially on a rebuilding Coyotes team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4402,"featured_media":136734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,4547,4548],"tags":[107,4886],"class_list":["post-136718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mammoth","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-arizona-coyotes","tag-matias-maccelli"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}