New Jersey Devils: How Does Dawson Mercer Get Back Into Calder Trophy Race?

The New Jersey Devils fans don’t have much to root for this season, but the surprising rise of Dawson Mercer has been something we all love. He was one of the early candidates for the Calder Trophy, the NHL’s version of the Rookie of the Year, but he’s been lapped by some of the great rookies in the league this season. Lucas Raymond has been absolutely amazing. The fourth-overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft has 28 points in 31 games so far this season, which is three ahead of Trevor Zegras who is rocketing up the voter’s boards for the Calder himself. He’s helped the Anaheim Ducks play extremely well in the Pacific Division. Then, there’s Moritz Seider, who is still third in points amongst rookies despite playing defense.

Mercer is currently fighting just to stay in the top five rookies in the league this season. He’s struggled as of late, scoring just two goals and recording zero assists in his last 11 games. The Devils have been dreadful, and Mercer is far from the problem, but he also isn’t exactly putting himself in the Calder conversation with three other rookies playing so well.

This isn’t over. Not by a long shot. The Devils have only played 30 games this season. There are still 52 games where Mercer can make an impact in the Calder Trophy race.

It will be really hard for Mercer to catch Raymond in points, but it’s definitely not impossible. Barring an injury to either player, Mercer would need to put up a point per game right now to even have a chance. That would put him at 68 points on the season. He has 16 points in 30 games, so he needs to really ramp up his scoring from this point on. Meanwhile, for Raymond to finish the season with 68 points, he would need to get roughly two points for every three games. That’s below his current point totals, but not by a lot. That is conceivable. The same would roughly go for Trevor Zegras as well.

Mercer needs to get on a better line if he’s going to get back into this Calder race. It could be as simple as putting him back with Andreas Johnsson and Jesper Bratt. They built great chemistry together, and all three have been worse since they’ve been separated. It’s time to put them back together and build the rest of the team around that line.

Mercer has a long climb ahead of him, but he’s still second in rookie goal-scoring and he’s sixth in total rookie points. Mercer is far behind right now, but the Calder Trophy is not outside of his reach. He needs to have an insane second half to his season, but someone with his motor and nose for the puck has all the tools to have that kind of a stretch.