Islanders 2021 end-of-year fan vote awards results

We asked you to vote on what New York Islanders should win 1 of 6 awards. Here are the results from the vote and how that changed from the mid-season vote.

Voting on our end-of-year awards is over. Thank you to everyone who voted. If you remember, at the halfway point of the season we asked you to vote on what New York Islanders player deserved one of six awards.

The Hart, Calder, Norris, Selke, Lindsay, and the Bob Nystrom award were all up for a vote. So, with the season over we asked you once again to tell us who you thought deserved an award.

And now with the end-of-year vote concluded let’s look at who you picked and how that changed from the mid-season vote!

Remember, this is an all Islanders-only ballot. We’re just trying to see who on the team, compared to his teammates, deserves an award.

First up is the Hart Trophy:

Hart Trophy

Mid-Season Winner: Barzal (53.6%)
End of Year Winner: Varlamov (34.7%)

At the mid-point of the season, Mathew Barazal was the runaway favorite for the most valuable player award. With 24 points in 28 games, it’s easy to see why Barzal was the overwhelming favorite to take the MVP trophy.

But now that the season is over the fan vote swung in favor of Semyon Varlamov.

And it’s not like Barzal was poor over the second half. Yes, he had that six-game stretch from March 14 to March 25 where he recorded only a single point, but he was still scoring at a 0.77 points-per-game pace in the second half. That’s 64 points over an 82 game season type of production.

Again, that’s not bad, but it wasn’t as good as his first half where he was scoring at a 0.857 points-per-game pace. That’s 70 points over a full 80 game season. Barzal wasn’t the same dominating presence in the second half* as he was in the first half.

*Except for that wild five-point performance against the Washington Capitals in April.

The vote for Varlamov didn’t materialize because all of a sudden he started playing well. Varly was about as good in the first half as he was in the second half.

Varly 1st Half Stats: 0.929SV% and 2.05GAA
Varly 2nd Half Stats: 0.930SV% and 1.94GAA

So again Varly was good in both halves, I think what put him over the top was how he sustained that incredible save percentage and GAA through the season. He’ll be a major key for the Isles in the playoffs.