First off, congrats to @DilIsPickle because the awards show presentation went really well. Also, congrats to all the winners, and no matter how I might frame my following thoughts, I don't intend to cheapen or de-legitimize anyone's award win. Now, on to the hot takes (some may just be luke-warm)
1. MVP to Cast: let's kick this one off with a doozy. Cast is a great player, we all know that, and without him, Riga's 1C would be Pajari, which makes him an extremely valuable player to their roster this season. However, nothing about his performance tells me that he carried the team to greater heights. If you take Cast off the roster, I think Riga still would have been solidly in the playoffs. Same with Malenko and Thompson, honestly, so I don't think they'd be entirely deserving of the MVP either. You all know where I'm going with this. Without Stopko, Toronto is a basement team this year. I would have projected them to miss the playoffs or be trounced in the WC round if it weren't for their star goaltender. Instead, Stopko carried the team to a solid playoff berth this season, wherein they often competed with the top two teams for seeding.
2. DDotY to Kovalchuk: I'll keep this one rather short by saying that Kovalchuk had not even entered my mind for consideration on any individual trophy this year. I was astounded to see his name as a finalist for anything and even more astounded to find that he'd stolen this right out from under McWolf's nose.
3. DotY to McWolf: this feels like one of those makeup calls refs make when they realize they made a chincy call earlier in the game. McWolf clearly deserved DDotY, so when he didn't get it, he was instead handed the DotY instead. Offensively, Malenko was head and shoulders above every other defenseman in the league in S64. It wasn't even close enough to have the gap covered by any sort of defensive prowess on anyone else's part.
Those are the only misses that stand out to me personally, make sure to let me know what you all think too in the comments.
364 words.