We are back with our NHL Saturday miniseries for the Original Six era, after week’s break to make our current Stanley Cup first-round predictions. We will check in on those later, of course, but now it’s time to look at the 1959 regular season and playoffs. Spoiler that we gave away last time? The Montréal Canadiens won their fourth of five straight Cups, as they dominated the six-team league by 18 points in the standings.

1959 Hart: Andy Bathgate, RW, New York (original, confirmed)

The vote went to New York Rangers right wing Andy Bathgate (9.9 PS), although the top forward in sabermetric value was Montréal Canadiens center Jean Béliveau (11.4). Yet the second-best forward was Habs left wing Dickie Moore (11.0), taking them both out of the conversation for this nominal “MVP” award. The only other forward in the Point Shares Top 10 was Detroit Red Wings RW Gordie Howe (8.4).

So, to the standings, as the teammates cancel each other out: alas, both the Rangers and the Wings actually missed the playoffs, with New York finishing one point out of fourth place. Montréal had a loaded team, with the best goaltender (see below), the best forwards, and the best defenseman (see below). Honestly, there are no other real choices here, really, so we will confirm Bathgate’s win, since he almost did it all alone.

Bathgate won our nod in 1962 as well, and this time around he didn’t lead the league in anything. But with 40 goals, 48 assists, and 48 PIMs, he kind of did it all for the sad-sack Rangers, taking them to the brink of the postseason despite not having a lot of support on his roster. Chicago Blackhawks C/RW Ed Litzenberger (8.3 OS) gets an honorable mention here, with his team in the postseason, but he had help.

1959 Norris: Tom Johnson, Montréal (original, confirmed)

He was the only defenseman in the NHL Top 10 for Point Shares, so Canadiens veteran Tom Johnson (8.8) won the Norris vote. He also topped the league in Defensive Point Shares (5.5), although the top four skaters in this category were all Montréal teammates. Throw in the team’s league-best goalie, and this seems to be a stacked deck. At age 30, though, this was Johnson’s only Norris vote win; he deserved it. That’s just the facts.

1959 Vezina: Jacques Plante, Montréal (original, confirmed)

The best goalie in the league, by almost 5 PS, was Canadiens legend Jacques Plante (15.6). The next-best netminder was Chicago’s Glenn Hall (10.8). With a PS mark that high and that much farther ahead of the second-place player, we will confirm Plante’s vote win. Hall has won the last five Vezinas from us (1960-1964), plus an extra in 1966. He doesn’t need another one. Technically, this is our firs nod to Plante, too.

1959 Calder: Ralph Backstrom, C, Montréal (original); Carl Brewer, D, Toronto (revised)

Considering the dominance of the Canadiens this season, it’s hard to see the Calder vote win of Montréal C Ralph Backstrom (3.8 PS) as “valid”—especially in retrospect. We have to re-assign this award to Toronto Maple Leafs D Carl Brewer (5.5), who was a lot more valuable to the fourth-place team than Backstrom was to the first-place team. Brewer finished second in the vote, so we feel very comfortable and confident in this.

1959 Conn Smythe: Dickie Moore, LW, Montréal

The Canadiens went 8-3 against Chicago and Toronto to win the Cup; they did it without much from Béliveau, too, who only played in three games. Five skaters, overall, still notched at least a point per game, so there’s so much going on there. Plante? He was good but not outstanding, with a 2.30 GAA and no shutouts. His .908 S% says a lot about how he could take these playoffs on cruise control and still win.

So, we’re going to go with Moore here, for his 17 points in 11 games. His 12 assists were a postseason high.