NHL Midseason Awards: Ryan Getzlaf Early Favorite for MVP

Jack Adams Trophy: Coach of the Year

Winner: Jon Cooper – Tampa Bay Lightning

In his first full season as an NHL head coach, Jon Cooper has surpassed all expectations. Predicted to wallow near the bottom of the Atlantic Division, the Lightning got off to superb start. Cooper then managed to keep the team afloat when Steven Stamkos broke his leg on November 11. Despite losing his superstar, the young bench boss has the Lightning just four points behind the division leading Bruins with a game in hand.

Runner Up: Patrick Roy – Colorado Avalanche

Another rookie coach, Patrick Roy has made the most of a roster stocked with young talent. The hall of famer has made the Avs relevant a year or two ahead of schedule. After picking Nathan MacKinnon first overall in last summer’s draft, the Avalanche are already on track to reach the postseason. Roy’s brilliant work behind the bench has nearly matched his historic efforts in the Pepsi Center crease.

Chris Blanchard

Chris Blanchard is a Boston, MA native and a student at Davidson College. He began writing about hockey as a Boston Bruins featured columnist for Bleacher Report in the fall of 2012. He has been covering the NHL for XN Sports since May of 2013. Follow @BlanchardNHL !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

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