7 NHL Calder Trophy Winners Who Then Disappeared

by Spencer Toth - 1/20/2026

Calder Trophy winners who disappeared Tyler Myers

Being drafted into the NHL is one of the most exciting achievements that any young hockey player dreams of. Thousands of hours of hard work pay off, and a long career in the world’s best hockey league is on the horizon. Some players have not only reached that dream, but have then gone on to win the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie. Many of the league’s greats, such as Connor McDavid, Wayne Gretzky, Auston Matthews, Sidney Crosby, and Jaromir Jagr, all missed out on this award but went on to have very successful NHL careers. The Calder Trophy is the only honor that every NHLer has only one chance to win. The winner usually uses the award as a springboard for a long, successful NHL career. However, that is not always the case. These NHLers won the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie, then promptly disappeared into irrelevancy. Here are the biggest Calder Trophy flops in NHL history.

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#1 Andrew Raycroft (Boston Bruins, 2004)

Andrew Raycroft served as a backup goalie as he bounced between the minors and the NHL from 2000 to 2003, before his career really took off in the 2003-2004 season. Raycroft was still eligible for the Calder Trophy thanks to minimal games played in his previous seasons, and he erupted for a career-year in his first full season with the Bruins. He posted a 29-18 record with 9 ties, with a 2.05 GAA and .926 save percentage. He was in the top five in all the major goaltending categories, won the Calder Trophy, and appeared destined for a long NHL career in the crease. The following season, Raycroft posted an 8-19-2 record with a 3.71 GAA and .879 save percentage. It was an inexplicable falloff from his rookie campaign, and the Bruins promptly traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Tuukka Rask. Widely considered one of the worst trades in history, Rask went on to be an elite NHL goalie for the next decade, while Raycroft bounced around from Toronto, to Colorado to Dallas, never playing more than 31 games after his first year with the Leafs. He finished his career in 2012 with a 2.89 GAA and a .900 save percentage, never coming close to his historic Calder Trophy numbers.

#2 Tyler Myers (Buffalo Sabres, 2010)

Tyler Myers is still in the league today, but he has never come close to replicating his rookie season in Buffalo. Myers looked like a future star at 6’8” who skated well. He scored 48 points as a defenseman in his rookie season and won the Calder Trophy in a landslide. However, Buffalo fell apart, and so did Myers. Injuries can be blamed, as Myers played 55 and 39 games in his third and fourth NHL seasons, respectively. but it was clear that his sensational rookie campaign was a flash in the pan. His 37 points in his second season were his second-best tally after his rookie year, and he didn’t eclipse 30 points again until the 2017-18 season. Myers hasn’t scored more than 6 goals or 30 points in any of his last six seasons and is tracking towards his worst year on record in the 2025-26 campaign with the Vancouver Canucks. While Myers stayed in the league longer than some other Calder Trophy winners, he never came close to replicating his production from his rookie campaign.

#3 Frank McCool (Toronto Maple Leafs, 1945)

Frank McCool had a dominant season in the crease during his rookie year but ultimately played only two years in the NHL due to ongoing health issues. He became one of the biggest ‘what-if’ stories in the NHL, as his 24-14 rookie season led the Maple Leafs to a playoff berth. His numbers got even better in his second season, but he was abruptly put on the IR and never stepped on the ice again. McCool will always have one of the craziest NHL careers in history, as he played one full season, won the Calder Trophy and the Stanley Cup… and that was it.

#4 Barrett Jackman (St. Louis Blues, 2003)

Barrett Jackman’s Calder Trophy win came as a bit of a surprise at the time and aged poorly given how the rest of his career went. Jackman was a reliable, stay-at-home defenseman who played 876 NHL games. Heonly scored three goals with 19 points in his rookie year, but his +23 allowed him to steal the Calder Trophy from his fellow rookies. He played a majority of his career until his final season in St. Louis, but only had 20+ points twice, with a career-high of 27 points. Offensive numbers don’t always tell the whole story, but he also never had a better +/- than his rookie year and was rarely featured on the top pairing for the Blues.

#5 Steve Mason (Columbus Blue Jackets, 2009)

There were few Calder Trophy wins as dominant as Steve Mason’s. The Blue Jackets' rookie posted an incredible ten shutouts, carried Columbus to their first-ever playoff appearance, and appeared to be the goalie of the future. His 2.29 GAA and .916 save percentage didn’t even tell the whole story, as Mason made the clutch saves his team needed in his rookie season. He inspired belief that the Blue Jackets could compete. However, when the league adjusted, Mason didn’t. He never posted a save percentage higher than .901 again with the Blue Jackets and was traded to the Flyers in 2013. His numbers stayed respectable after he got traded, but he never became the difference-maker in the crease that was expected after his rookie year.

#6 Sergei Samsonov (Boston Bruins, 1998)

Sergei Samsonov was one of the few scorers who made an immediate impact in his rookie year. The Russian winger scored 22 goals and 48 points in his rookie season, but then saw his career suddenly drop off. It was not as if Samsonov was an ineffective NHL player, but he never reached the heights expected after his Calder-winning campaign. He never managed to score 30+ goals in a season and bounced around the league after leaving Boston in 2005. He played for five different teams in his final five years and was used as a depth forward rather than the impactful star he appeared destined to become.

#7 Gaye Stewart (Toronto Maple Leafs, 1943)

Gaye Stewart had 47 points in 48 games during his rookie season, winning the Calder Trophy with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He then left the NHL for two years to serve in the Royal Canadian Navy and was never the same player when he returned. Stewart went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1945 with Frank McCool, but it was clear that his phenomenal rookie season was not the springboard for a long, successful career with the Maple Leafs. Stewart was traded in 1948 after a 33-point season the year before and spent the next seven years with four different teams in a league of six franchises. Stewart had an early retirement that never saw him live up to the lofty expectations from his rookie campaign.

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Start:	January 20, 2026 @ 8:30 PM
Expert:	Raphael Esparza (VSI)
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7 NHL Calder Trophy Winners Who Then Disappeared

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