Let’s use the holiday break to hand out some hardware. The NHL regular season is 40 percent through, 527 games played of its 1,312-game schedule.

It’s also a reminder of how late we started again this season. The regular season doesn’t conclude until April 18. The playoffs begin April 22. The playoffs should start on April 1 and end on May 31. It will never happen, I know. But I digress …

Time to hand out my NHL award picks at the holiday break.

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For sure every single reader will agree 100 percent with my picks!

Jack Adams Award

Rick Tocchet, Vancouver Canucks

Come on, how can this even be a debate!?

Of course, there are cases to be made for Peter Laviolette, Todd McLellan, Jim Montgomery, Bruce Cassidy, John Tortorella and Rick Bowness, among others. But at the break, the transformation of the Canucks from last season’s disaster is nothing short of brilliant. I get it, it helps to have a healthy Thatcher Demko in net. But there’s structure, discipline and now true confidence in the bones of this Canucks team.

It’s an amazing story so far. And yes, Tocchet is your coach of the year through 40 percent of the season.

Calder Trophy

Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks

I will say this: Brock Faber is going to make this an interesting Calder Trophy race before the end of the season. The rookie Wild defenseman is playing more than 24 minutes a game, by far leading NHL rookies. He’s been absolutely electrifying.

But for now, I’m sticking with the 18-year-old wunderkind from the Blackhawks, who hasn’t disappointed one bit so far under all the hype and pressure and expectations of being the league’s next generational player, leading NHL rookies in scoring and showing that his sensational shot release translates to the NHL level without a sweat. And he’s doing it with a roster around him that’s rather thin, to be polite, especially after losing Taylor Hall for the season.

GO DEEPER

How has Connor Bedard looked in his first 25 games compared to past No. 1 picks?

Norris Trophy

Quinn Hughes, Vancouver Canucks

Worthy mentions for Miro Heiskanen, Noah Dobson, Adam Fox and Brock Faber, but let’s be real: This is a two-man race so far.

Flip a coin between Hughes and Cale Makar. It’s that close. They both deserve it. Imagine if the race remains this close after 82 games and the voters from the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association end up voting them exactly tied? It won’t happen, but it would probably be justified based on what we’ve seen so far.

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I’ll go with Hughes for now. What a freaking engine. How do you defend against him? His vision, creativity, it’s like watching a video game. Of course, I feel exactly the same way about Makar.

GO DEEPER

NHL awards watch: Can Cale Makar be the first defenseman to win a Hart Trophy since 2000?

Rocket Richard Trophy

Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs

I love the Brock Boeser story, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. Nikita Kucherov will keep the heat on all year. David Pastrnak will probably have a crazy stretch soon to make it more interesting, too.

But give me Matthews with minimal doubt. Is it too early to start wondering if a healthy Matthews can overtake Alex Ovechkin, or even Wayne Gretzky, for the all-time goals record before the end of his career? That’s a conversation for another day …

Vezina Trophy

Thatcher Demko, Vancouver Canucks

It’s Demko all day long for me right now. According to MoneyPuck, he leads the NHL in goals saved above expected, and his return to health this season is such a huge deal for the surprising Canucks.

“He’s been the best goalie in the league this season. He’s the reason the Canucks are first in the NHL,” said former NHL netminder and current TSN analyst Jamie McLennan. “There are others that deserve the love and consideration, but he’s been the most consistent.”

No Canucks goalie has ever won the Vezina in NHL history. Kirk McLean was runner-up in voting in 1991-92, as was Roberto Luongo in 2006-07.

Worthy cases are also being made so far this season by Connor Hellebuyck, the 2020 Vezina Trophy winner, as well as Adin Hill, Jeremy Swayman, Cam Talbot and Ilya Sorokin. And I also think Carter Hart’s season has been underrated.

Selke Trophy

Patrice Bergeron’s retirement finally opens up this award for someone else to win it. They should really rename the award after the Bruins legend.

No question Aleksander Barkov is an awesome choice for Selke right now, as well, and I’m not going to really argue against it.

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But I feel like not enough people in the East are staying up to watch the Kings this season. What Kopitar is doing at 36 is fabulous. He’s still a 200-foot workhorse and is absolutely justifying his two-year extension from last summer.

Again, Barkov deserves lots of love here, but I’m making a point about not enough people noticing what’s going on in L.A. and the Kings captain’s season. Kopitar won the Selke in 2015-16 and 2017-18, while Barkov won his Selke in 2020-21. One of them is likely to add another come June.

Honorable mentions to Mark Stone and Nico Hischier.

Hart Trophy

It’s shaping up to be as wide open an MVP race as we’ve seen in a few years.

Three-time Hart Trophy winner Connor McDavid is coming on big time, and if he gets his Oilers into the playoffs after a disastrous opening six weeks, he’ll get some love from voters. And, well, he’s the best player in the world looking like the best player in the world again, so it’ll be deserved.

Superstar defensemen Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar each deserve Hart Trophy talk, but what may hurt their case is each having a forward teammate stealing votes, not to mention a historical penchant from voters.

The last defenseman to win the Hart Trophy was Chris Pronger in 1999-2000, and before that, the great Bobby Orr in 1971-72. It feels like because blue liners have the Norris, voters keep the MVP mostly for forwards (with the odd goalie sprinkled in there).

But both Hughes and Makar so far this season are absolutely worthy of MVP talk.

That brings me to Hughes’ teammate Elias Pettersson. He should also be in this MVP discussion, and I hand it off to our Canucks beat writer extraordinaire Thomas Drance, who was kind enough when I asked to break down the Pettersson/Hughes MVP conundrum:

From Drance:

“Elias Pettersson is having another excellent season, continues to elevate his linemates, has rounded out his game as a penalty killer and a reliable face-off center and remains one of the NHL’s most unique weapons on the power play. Among Canucks forwards, he’s probably Vancouver’s most important five-on-five engine.

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“Of the two Canucks skaters, however, Quinn Hughes would be the player that I’d suggest should be strongly considered for the Hart Trophy.

“Hughes leads all NHL blueliners in goals and points. He’s first in the NHL in plus-minus (a statistic we should side-eye, but I’ll add relevant context for why it matters in Hughes’ case shortly), and the player that ranks second is his regular defense partner, Filip Hronek.

“Here’s the most important part: Though Hughes contributes in every phase of the game, his bread and butter is that he’s Vancouver’s most important five-on-five player and exerts a wild amount of gravity over the game when he’s on the ice.

“Consider that Vancouver has outscored its opponents by a whopping 21 goals at even strength in Hughes’ minutes and he’s also the only regular Canucks defender with an on-ice shot differential in the black.

“In terms of the overall value he’s provided this season, Hughes has established himself as more than just one of the best defenders in the league. He’s been one of the five most impactful skaters in the league this season.”

Right now, my Hart ranking would go MacKinnon, McDavid, Hughes, with Makar close behind.

But did we mention it’s a wide-open field? There are a number of other worthy candidates.

Nikita Kucherov, the 2018-19 Hart Trophy winner, doesn’t get enough attention for what he’s doing, leading the league in scoring and being an impactful force in a very consistent manner. And I will add, he’s doing it for a Tampa Bay team that’s not as deep as it once was.

If the Devils straighten out their season and get into the playoffs, Jack Hughes will improve his Hart Trophy stock.

Auston Matthews is on pace for 70-plus goals! What about him?

Artemi Panarin and David Pastrnak have been unreal for first-place teams.

If Sidney Crosby wills the Penguins into the playoffs, with the way he’s playing, what a story that would be. It would propel him into the MVP discussion. And it would come 10 years since he last won the Hart Trophy, in 2013-14.

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Yeah, as I said, it’s a deep field right now for the Hart.

But I’m going with MacKinnon at Christmas. His production over the past month has been ridiculous, one sensational game after another. It’s an MVP season in the making.

Last Avalanche player to win the Hart Trophy? Peter Forsberg in 2002-03, which came two years after teammate Joe Sakic won it in 2000-01. Those are the only two Hart trophy wins in Avalanche/Nordiques history.

What say you, Athletic readers?

GO DEEPER

Nathan MacKinnon continues to play like a Hart Trophy candidate

GO DEEPER

NHL season predictions 3.0: The rise of the Avalanche, Rangers and … Coyotes?

(Top photo of Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)

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