Seriously?
I think you really need to look at teams outside of the Penguins and the Eastern Conference. Three of the poll options are from the Penguins and, outside of Jordan Staal, they were all within six points of their total of last year. It's hardly a comeback. However, Staal is only 21, he hasn't reached his full potential. There has to be a pre-established level of what he will play like before he can come back to it. He'll still get better, it's natural progression, which pretty much exempts him from contention of comeback of the year. Also, Tim Thomas was great last year and continued to play fantastic this year. Mark Recchi does belong in contention though.
Martin Havlat played a full season for the Blackhawks and improved his point total by 50 points from last year. Patrick Elias, who after two lackluster seasons, has returned to PPG form, and was playing with more jump than those seasons. Patrick Marleau was a huge part of the Sharks being the elite team, doubled his goal total, and returned to form that earned him his current contract. Michael Ryder returned to 30-goal form after being chased out of Montreal. Simon Gagne came back from injuries that caused him to miss the majority of the 2007-08 season and scored 74 points this year, while playing in 79 games.
Although, I can certainly understand why you skipped any of these players, since none of them played for the Penguins this year.
At least add an "other" option if you're going to stuff the poll with Penguins players.
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Comeback player of the year
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