Lady Byng Trophy Candidates

The Lady Byng Trophy... handed down to the most gentlemanly like player in the league. This is somewhat measured on a player's penalty minutes, but you may think that it should be more. As for making a prediction of the winner, it will take a little bit of history and a few numbers as well.

Martin St. Louis finished the season quite well, despite being on a less-than-deep team that couldn't find a way to win... at all! He did finish with 83 points in all 82 games this season and only managed to rack up 26 minutes in penalties in the season. Sadly for St. Louis, that was the most out of all three candidates for the trophy. This will be the telling stat that keeps him away from some hardware in the year.

Believe it or not, history is really against Pavel Datsyuk when it comes to this trophy. Sure, he had 97 points in 82 games this season. He did have a staggering +41 in the plus/minus column. He also only took 10 minor penalties this season, but there is something about this trophy that is working against him. The last time a player three-peated on this trophy was Frank Boucher of the New York Rangers back in 1935. He actually won the award seven times in eight years and not since then has there been a three-peat, despite attempts by players like Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Red Kelly, all of whom had the trophy three times in four years. Sorry Pavel, not this year... redeem your third one next season.

This leaves breakout player, Jason Pominville of the Buffalo Sabres, to take the trophy for the 2007/08 season. Pominville had 80 points in 82 games and also registered only 20 minutes in penalties this season. Pominville was also captain of the Sabres for the final month of the season and led the team for the better part of the season by example. Of course, this is only a prediction and it would be great to see a breakout player get a little bit more notoriety for himself and his team.