The NHL's rookie class was incredibly deep this season, so it's only natural that a slew of phenoms would be left out when the three Calder Trophy finalists were announced Thursday.

Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, and Zach Werenski all deserve their nominations, but many of their contemporaries could also be acknowledged for having impressive inaugural campaigns.

Here are five rookies who might have played well enough to be finalists in any other year:

William Nylander

Matthews' teammate had himself a terrific first full campaign in the NHL, scoring 22 goals and adding 39 assists while missing only one game in the regular season.

Nylander played 22 NHL games last season, three shy of the mark that would have disqualified him for the award in 2016-17, but that shouldn't diminish what he accomplished.

The 20-year-old tied for third among rookies in points; placed second among all Leafs in helpers, fourth on the team in goals, and tied for third in points; and set a franchise rookie record with a 12-game point streak in March.

Mitch Marner

The Leafs showed off a trio of talented rookie centers this season.

Marner led all rookies as well as the entire Leafs squad with 42 assists - setting a franchise rookie mark of his own with his 41st.

The 19-year-old tied Nylander for third on the rookie points list with 61, and he did it in four fewer games.

Matt Murray

Many forget that the Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender was eligible for this award, thanks to the same 25-game rule that allowed Chicago Blackhawks star Artemi Panarin to win it last year.

Murray played 13 regular-season games for the Penguins last season before usurping Marc-Andre Fleury as the starter and helping Pittsburgh win the Stanley Cup.

He retained the No. 1 role when healthy this season, going 32-10-4 with a 2.41 GAA and a .923 save percentage. Murray certainly had some help in front of him, but the 22-year-old finished in the top 10 in the league in wins while making 49 appearances.

Sebastian Aho

Only Matthews and Laine scored more goals than Aho among rookies this season.

The Carolina Hurricanes winger notched 24 goals and finished fifth in the class with 49 points while playing every game.

Those totals ranked him second on the club behind Jeff Skinner in both categories - an impressive feat for the 19-year-old, despite the Hurricanes' less than high-powered offense.

Mikko Rantanen

The Colorado Avalanche were by far the worst team in the NHL in 2016-17, but Rantanen was one of the club's lone bright spots.

He led Colorado and finished in a tie for fifth among rookies with 20 goals, and although he only posted 38 points, that was good enough for third on the team, five points ahead of Gabriel Landeskog.

The Avalanche may end up trading Landeskog and Matt Duchene at some point, but the 10th overall pick in 2015 should be a significant piece of the club's core for years to come.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

This week, "On the Fly," theScore's NHL roundtable session, is essentially an autopsy of the Chicago Blackhawks, whose season ended Thursday in a most-shocking sweep at the hands of the Nashville Predators. We're asking the important questions: How? Why?

Navin Vaswani: To keep it short and sweet: Pekka Rinne happened.

Dude allowed three goals in four games, stopping 123 of 126 shots he faced in almost 13 periods (.976 percent, if you're into that kind of thing), while posting two clean sheets. That's hockey. That's life.

It was a closely contested series. At 5-on-5, a wash:

(Data courtesy: Corsica Hockey)

Rinne was better than Corey Crawford, who leaves the playoffs with a nightmare .902 save percentage. Simple. And, truly, while a sweep certainly is surprising, the fact that Nashville won shouldn't be. The Predators are a legit team.

An 82-game sample is always the most reliable, so check out the kind of defense the Predators played since October:

(Image courtesy: Hockey Viz)

Peter Laviolette's squad limited scoring chances from the slot all season, with the opposition only generating chances from the outside and high in the zone. Rinne gets hot, and it makes sense that the series is over in four.

Nashville also played exceptionally disciplined hockey over the past week, taking only nine penalties in four games (the same can be said for Chicago, which took only eight). While the Blackhawks' power play ranked 19th at 18 percent during the season, Chicago puts out its most talented players when it's up a man, and there's some bloody exceptional talent on Joel Quenneville's bench. Two of Chicago's three (!) goals in the series came on the man advantage. Nashville had to stay out of the box, and it did.

Chicago won Cups in 2013 and 2015, and many had the team doing it again in 2017, after the club somewhat quietly dominated - you get used to it, truthfully - and finished atop the Western Conference. But, finally, the puck stopped bouncing the Blackhawks' way. They didn't win a game in April, losing their final four regular-season matches (three by a goal, and two in overtime), and then ran into Rinne.

This happens. It simply hasn't, recently, to the Blackhawks, and that's what makes it so surprising.

Cory Wilkins: The Blackhawks were a re-enactment of "Failure to Launch."

Down 3-0 in the series, Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville noted he would need everyone to contribute if his squad was to make a historic comeback against the Predators. Though, he emphasized it would be up to his club's top players to lead the charge.

They never delivered.

Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin, Jonathan Toews - the team's top three scorers in the regular season - combined for two goals and three assists, with Toews' lone marker turning out meaningless, as he tallied late in the third period of Game 4 with the Predators already ahead 3-0.

Chicago's other top players were also missing in action through the opening-round series. Veteran winger Marian Hossa put up zero points through four games, as did a host of other key producers like Artem Anisimov and Ryan Hartman. Most shocking? Defenseman Duncan Keith was the Blackhawks' only blue-liner to registered a single point this postseason.

In all, the Blackhawks produced a meager three goals in four games. In the words of Carolina head coach Bill Peters: "Not good enough."

Josh Wegman: Nashville was the hungrier team. Plain and simple. The Preds have seen the Blackhawks flaunt their three Stanley Cup rings since 2010 and dominate the Central Division for years now. Enough, apparently, was enough.

Obviously the Blackhawks still took the ice and tried their best to win, but how desperate can you really be to win when most of your roster already has three Stanley Cup rings? Deep down, Nashville wanted it more. Absolutely nobody gave them a chance in this series. That was certainly bulletin-board material from the get go.

In my eyes, the Preds were an underachieving bunch all season long. They happened to play up to their potential at the right time. All they needed was some extra motivation. They have one of the most mobile defense corps in the NHL, one that was able to mitigate the speed of the Blackhawks. And of course, Rinne played the best hockey of his life.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Terry Pegula is in full denial mode.

The Buffalo Sabres owner attempted to pour cold water on three separate claims at Friday's news conference addressing the firings of general manager Tim Murray and head coach Dan Bylsma.

First, there was the matter of Jack Eichel's reported lack of interest in signing a contract extension if Bylsma remained behind the bench.

That story emerged one day before Thursday's dismissals, but like Eichel's agent, Peter Fish, and the player himself, Pegula insisted there was nothing to it.

"Jack’s involvement as it was reported … is a complete fabrication," the owner said, according to ESPN's Craig Custance, adding, "I defend Jack, just as Peter did. It's not a true story."

Pegula was asked about another report that came about 20 minutes before the owner's scheduled media session. This one claimed former Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi interviewed for the corresponding Sabres position Thursday.

"We haven't talked to anybody," Pegula said. "Put that in the Jack-demanded-his-coach-be-fired category."

The owner also tried to dispel the notion that the Sabres tanked under Murray when they finished dead last in the NHL in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

"We do not hope to lose. ... We went through a rebuild," he said, according to WBEN. Pegula added, "I don't feel that we tanked. We rebuilt," according to WGR 550.

The owner also said he regrets not being more involved in Murray and Bylsma's hirings, and indicated he'll look for experienced candidates to fill the vacancies.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

John Tortorella was his usual forthright self after his Columbus Blue Jackets were eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.

"We played our ass(es) off," the Blue Jackets head coach told reporters after a 5-2 defeat in Game 5. "That's not a (typical) 4-1 series."

He declined to discuss the controversial play early in the third period on which the Blue Jackets tied the game but then had the goal waved off after it was deemed Alexander Wennberg interfered with Marc-Andre Fleury.

Fleury appeared to be outside the crease when the contact was made, but Tortorella wasn't interested in going down that road.

"You guys watched the game. You don't need my help with that," he said.

When he was asked about it for a second time, the coach made it clear he really didn't want to go there.

"I'm not talking about the play," he insisted. "Stop baiting me into it, please. There's no sense in me having a viewpoint on it. It happened."

Tortorella didn't want to play favorites when asked about Boone Jenner's solid performance in the series-clinching loss.

"I'm not singling out any one player," the coach said. "That was a team effort. I like our group. I'll tell you right now, I like our group. Do we have some things to work on and get better at? Damn right, we do, but I like our group."

Columbus had its best regular season in franchise history, and there's plenty to be optimistic about going into next season despite the early exit.

Still, Tortorella's absence from the remaining playoff press conferences will be noticeable, to say the least.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Peter DeBoer was out there throwing 'bows.

The San Jose Sharks head coach couldn't help but nudge the glass in front of an Edmonton fan who was giving him the business during Thursday night's overtime win by the Oilers in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.

Related: Desharnais ends dominant OT for Oilers with one-timer past Jones

DeBoer can be thankful there's no Department of Fan Safety to schedule a hearing, and for the pane of glass that protected the guy from the coach's quick right.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

David Desharnais will be remembered in Edmonton for quite some time.

The Oilers center recorded the overtime goal in Game 5 to give his team a 3-2 series lead over the San Jose Sharks.

The win was well earned for the Oilers, who out shot San Jose 14-2 in the extra frame.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.