Islanders great Bryan Trottier reflects on winning Calder Trophy 50 years ago

Family and close friends surprised Matthew Schaefer during a TV appearance last month by presenting him the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.

Fifty years earlier, Islanders Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier got a letter and a low-key luncheon when he won the same award.

Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of Trottier winning the Calder in tandem with teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Denis Potvin garnering the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman. They were honored at a luncheon in Montreal on June 7, 1976.

“I think it’s wonderful the way they do it now,” Trottier told Newsday in a phone interview. “In our day, it was spectacular. We really enjoyed it. I don’t know how Denis got notified, but I got a letter from the National Hockey League. We framed it. ‘Congratulations, you won the Calder Trophy.’ So that’s how I found out was through the mail.”

The low-key celebration — at least relative to today — belied just how significant a day it was for the franchise, still just four years old but already building toward its Stanley Cup dynasty from 1980-83. It marked the first time the Islanders won multiple NHL individual awards, something that has happened five times since.

“I think we were shyly enjoying it, I guess is the best way to say it, with that sense of it wasn’t about me, it was about our team and it reflected on all of us,” Trottier said. “It was that kind of moment.”

“Both those guys, they thought highly of the team and, needless to say, they gave a lot of credit to the team,” teammate Bob Nystrom told Newsday in a separate phone interview. “But they earned those awards. Trots was, even at that point, a phenomenal player and Denis was the same way. Denis was tough and good and strong.”

Trottier, now 69, set Islanders rookie records with 32 goals (eclipsed two seasons later by Hall of Famer Mike Bossy with 53) and 63 assists (since tied by Mathew Barzal in 2017-18) for 95 points.

The 22nd overall pick in 1974 (second round) went on to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP in 1979 and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP in 1980.

Potvin, now 72, set team records for defensemen with 31 goals, 67 assists and 98 points after being picked first overall in the 1973 NHL Draft. Three seasons later, he broke his own record for assists (70) and points (101) while matching the 31 goals. It marked the first of three Norris Trophy wins in four seasons for Potvin and snapped Bruins Hall of Famer Bobby Orr’s eight-season reign of being named the top defenseman.

“Bobby had dominated for a long time,” Trottier said. “There’s only going to be one Bobby Orr. But you look at Denis and I think his intensity and his young leadership and the fact that he wanted to excel, he was fantastic. We sat next to each other [in the dressing room] for 15 years and we never had a cross word. It was kind of magical in that sense. We never talked about individual stuff. We always talked about team.”

Nystrom said he saw that same intensity in Trottier.

“There was a certain toughness in him,” he said. “He wasn’t going to fight, but I’ll tell you what, to try to knock him down, it was literally impossible. He could deliver a check. Most of the time it was very clean. You just couldn’t knock this guy off his feet.”

Trottier said he and Potvin enjoyed the awards luncheon which, in keeping with the NHL’s aesthetic of the day, deliberately drew little media attention.

“It was very NHL at the time, which was, ‘Don’t make a big to-do of this,’ ” Trottier said.

“It was wonderful. I got to hang out with Gordie Howe. I got to hang out with Jean Beliveau. They presented the trophies in those days. They’d bring in somebody who was not just a former winner but somebody of stature.

“Denis was there, so having a teammate there was really wonderful. His family came in. I didn’t have any family there. But it was really wonderful to be able to go into the NHL [headquarters] and just enjoy that luncheon, that little mini-celebration that it was.”

Of course, Potvin and Trottier’s teammates were all eager to offer their congratulations. So were Hall of Fame general manager Bill Torrey and Hall of Fame coach Al Arbour.

Arbour couldn’t help but also deliver a subtle message to the award-winners.

“Bill Torrey and Al Arbour made a big to-do of it,” Trottier said. “But of course, Al gives you the ‘OK, this is not the biggest prize in the world. Congratulations, but we’re after bigger and better things. Don’t get complacent.’

“You know Al. He’s just that father figure that we all need.”

Bigger and better, of course, was the Stanley Cup. Potvin and Trottier would win that, too.

Fifty years ago today, the Islanders earned some league recognition that they were on their way.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.