Per the report, the Calder Memorial Trophy is presented each season to the NHL player judged the most proficient in his first year of competition, and the 2026 recipient is listed as Matthew Schaefer of the New York Islanders. The award has been given since 1933, according to the report.
The report notes the trophy is named for former league president Frank Calder and that the Professional Hockey Writers Association determines the winner. Voters rank their top five rookies under a 10-7-5-3-1 points system, per the report.
Eligibility rules for the award are also outlined in the report: a player must not have appeared in more than 25 games in any single preceding season, nor in six or more games in each of any two previous seasons in any major professional league. The report presents those conditions as the basis for rookie status.
Recent Calder winners listed in the report include Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens (2025), Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks (2024), Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken (2023), Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings (2022), Kirill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild (2021), and Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche (2020), per the report.
The report provides a year-by-year roster of past winners dating back to the award’s inception. It records that there was no winner in 2005 due to the NHL lockout and includes earlier recipients such as Teemu Selanne (1993), Mario Lemieux (1985), Bobby Orr (1967) and Ken Dryden (1972), among many others listed by year and team in the report.
