How Aaron Ekblad won the 2015 Calder Trophy

The Florida Panthers are piling up the Calder trophies. On Wednesday night, Aaron Ekblad became the second Panther in three seasons to win the award. Jonathan Huberdeau took home rookie of the year honors in 2013.

“It looked easy? It wasn’t that easy. It was a long season full of ups and downs,” Ekblad said. “I wanted to play 82 games but fell short one at 81. I got a flu type thing for one game, I was losing my mind. It definitely wasn’t easy. There were a lot of ups and downs. Some might say I kind of hit a little bit of a rut around Game 60 but managed to pull through it with the help of my teammates. Definitely not easy by any means.”

From the NHL: 

Ekblad, the No. 1 overall selection in the 2014 NHL Draft, set club records for goals (12), assists (27) and points (39) by a rookie defenseman. His 39 points were two shy of the NHL record for an 18-year-old defenseman (at the start of the season), set by Bobby Orr in 1966-67 (13-28—41). Ekblad led the Panthers in plus-minus (+12) and was on the ice for 88 Florida goals scored, the most of any player on the roster.

The award was voted on by the PHWA. Here’s the breakdown: 

No real wacky votes with this one, and it’s obvious how much of an impact Mark Stone’s second half for the Ottawa Senators had to move him passed Johnny Gaudreau and Filip Forsberg in the voting.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy