The Talents Behind the Trophies: the Jake Wylde Trophy

[Doomsday 4,130]

@Motzaburger don't want none unless you got buns, hun. 

 

Hello and welcome to another edition of The Talents Behind the Trophies! In this series, we delve deep into the history of the Victory Hockey League to learn more about the players that the various awards of the VHL and VHLM are named after. Many times, people covet a trophy, yet they don't know the story behind the player the award is named for. Personally, I feel that the stories of these players should be told. You see, these awards were initially named after NHL players, eventually taking the name of VHL players who personified the spirit of that award. Naturally, these are some of the best to ever grace the league, and The Talents Behind the Trophies will ensure their stories are known. 

 

But before we get started, let's take a look at the VSN content that's out this week! Our coverage of Season 76 concludes with a recap of the Season 76 World Junior Hockey Championship, and a closer look at some of the biggest trades that took place over the off-season. The VSN Scouting Department worked overtime to bring you the Season 77 edition of Future Watch, where you can get a closer look at the farm system of every VHL team and see where yours stacks up! Advantage returns with the transparency of the BOG Update, and @Berocka and @dasboot are back for more in VSN Australia: One and a Half Aussies!

Season 76 WJHC Recap | Season 76 Off-Season Trade Reviews | Season 77 Future Watch | BOG Update | VSN Australia
 

For a vast majority of the history of the VHL, defensemen had few realistic chances at individual awards. The Sterling Labatte Trophy as the top defenseman in the VHL, the Alexander Beketov Trophy for leading the VHL in assists, which often goes to a defenseman, were the two awards that most defensemen had realistic aspirations towards. An elite few have won the Scotty Campbell Trophy as VHL MVP, along with the Brett Slobodzian Trophy as the most outstanding player in the VHL, with some other odds and ends. However, for the first 58 seasons of the VHL, it was an unfortunate truth that individual acclaim would only come to defensemen that were a specific type: offensive-minded blue liners that racked up a ton of points. Gritty defensive defensemen were an important, yet unheralded, part of the VHL. However, that came to an end in Season 59, when the VHL announced the creation of the Jake Wylde Trophy, which would be awarded to the best defensive defenseman in the VHL. The iconic Sterling Labatte Trophy was repurposed to recognize the best offensive defensemen, but in Season 63 it would revert back to being awarded to the top defenseman in the VHL with the creation of the Alexander Valiq Trophy to honor the top offensive defenseman. 

 

First ballot VHL Hall of Famer Fabio Jokinen won the first Jake Wylde Trophy in his final season, scoring 90 points and recording 217 hits and blocking 156 shots. Whether or not he'd have beaten out a 100 point season by Ay Ay Ron to win the Sterling Labatte Trophy by the league's old standards is debatable, Dexter Lane winning the Jake Wylde Trophy with 42 points in Season 60 simply would have never happened in older times. Certainly makes you wonder how many quality blue liners in the olden days missed out on much-deserved recognition, including the namesake of the new trophy, Jake Wylde. Despite a Hall of Fame career in which he was enshrined in his second season of eligibility, a major detraction of Wylde's career and legacy has always been his lack of hardware. It clearly wasn't enough to keep him from the VHL Hall of Fame, and rightfully so, but how much bigger could his legacy be if the award that bears his name had existed during his playing days? We'll never truly know, but today, we'll take a look at the career of Jake Wylde, a great defenseman in his own right that often feels a bit too overlooked in VHL history. 

 

The Jake Wylde Trophy, presented annually to the best defensive defenseman in the VHL since Season 59.

 

After the resounding success of Ethan Osborne, STZ's first player in the VHL, there was a tremendous amount of hype for his second player, defenseman Jake Wylde. As a member of the Season 38 draft class, he never heard his name called on draft day thanks to the old GM Rule, which placed him on the Helsinki Titans, of which STZ was the GM. In the midst of a rebuild, not much was expected from Helsinki in spite of the addition of a rookie class including two talented defensemen in Wylde and Vojczek Svoboda, along with the Season 37 Sawchuk Trophy (now the Benoit Devereux Trophy) winner Kimmo Salo in net. The team had a bright future, but a strong European Conference did them no favors. Wylde had an impressive rookie season, scoring 27 goals and 33 assists for 60 points, also racking up 278 hits and blocking 170 shots. While Wylde lived up to the hype, displaying the skill and potential he had, it was a dismal season for the Titans, finishing near the bottom of the standings. However, with five rookies joining the team in Season 39, including Tyson Stokes and Jackson Miller, two of their four first round picks in the Season 39 VHL Entry Draft. Helsinki's roster was taking shape, but the time still wasn't right, again finishing at the bottom of the conference. Despite his stats slightly dipping, Jake Wylde was still a bright spot for the Titans, and the future was very bright for Helsinki. 

 

With the HC Davos Dynamo and Vasteras Iron Eagles entering rebuilds in Season 40 and Season 38 first overall pick James Faraday joining the Titans, along with acquiring Damon Tyrael from Seattle and goaltender Eggly Bagelface from Vasteras. With a stronger roster and higher expectations, Jake Wylde had his best season yet, averaging a point per game, a +31, 263 hits and blocking 102 shots. He was selected as an All-Star for the European Conference, and the Helsinki Titans made the playoffs for the first time in his career, facing off against the Riga Reign. In a tough, back and forth series, the Titans were defeated in Game Seven, however, quickly ending their season in the opening round at the hands of the eventual Continental Cup champions. Helsinki was still in good shape to contend, as they reached the playoffs again in Season 41 in spite of Wylde's worst statistical season offensively. His numbers sharply dropped, recording just 51 points compared to 72 a season ago as he took on a more defensive role with Kimmo Salo back in net after Eggly Bagelface's retirement. The Titans, however, were still a dangerous team, and showed it off by quickly dispatching Thomas O'Malley, Mason Richardson, and the Cologne Express with relative ease. Once again, however, the constant thorn in the side of Ethan Osborne, the Riga Reign, were again proving to be the same for Jake Wylde. Again, Helsinki fell to Riga in a tight series, losing in six games, as the Reign moved on to play for the Continental Cup for a second straight season. 

 

It didn't take long for Jake Wylde to live up to the hype, but individual and team success eluded him early in his career with Helsinki.

 

Season 42 was one of tremendous promise for the Helsinki Titans, one made even more so when Mike Szatkowski Jr., the netminder who had bested them the past two playoff runs, was acquired from Riga, addressing the weakest link in the Titans' armor. With the Reign going into a rebuild, nothing could get in Helsinki's way now. Wylde's offensive production returned, although not quite up to his Season 40 numbers, with 19 goals and 45 assists for 64 points. He remained just as good defensively, and Helsinki cruised to a decisive first place finish in the European Conference, earning a bye in the process. Standing in their way of a trip to the Continental Cup Finals after sweeping the Stockholm Vikings was the Cologne Express, who the Titans had easily dispatched the year before in the first round, on top of finishing ahead of them by a large margin this season. However, this Express team was ready for Helsinki, and took a 3-1 lead after Ron World Peace delivered a crushing game-winning goal in overtime of Game Four. On the brink, Wylde and the Titans rallied with two straight overtime wins of their own to even the series at 3, including a Jake Wylde goal to tie up Game Six, forcing a decisive Game Seven with a trip to the Continental Cup on the line. Cologne, however, took control following a power play goal in the first period, and outside of a goal by Don Draper in the second to make it 2-1, the Titans were flat-footed in the biggest game of the season, losing 4-1 as the Cologne Express went on to stun the Quebec City Meute to win the Continental Cup. 

 

As it turned out, that was the final game that Jake Wylde would play for Helsinki. Team management decided that this group just wasn't going to be able to win it all, and after coming a game shy of reaching the Cup, it was blown up. Quebec City, after suffering their own humiliation at the hands of the Cologne Express after dominating the league and winning the Victory Cup, pushed even further and acquired Wylde through a trade. Now on a Victory Cup winning roster featuring two future Hall of Famers in Aksel Thomassen and Bruno Wolf, Wylde's offensive output absolutely exploded. Scoring 22 goals and a league-leading 81 assists for 103 points, and with 251 hits and 90 shots blocked, he finally won some hardware for his trophy cabinet. Along with earning his second All-Star Game selection, Wylde won the Alexander Beketov Trophy for leading the VHL in assists, along with the coveted Sterling Labatte Trophy as the top defenseman in the VHL. The Meute again finished atop their conference, facing the Seattle Bears in the second round after sweeping the Toronto Legion out of their way. However, after a 4-3 victory in Game One, Quebec City failed to win another game in the series, as old teammate James Faraday and young goaltender Niklaus Mikaelson simply overpowered the stunned Meute to win the next four games, and then upset the Cologne Express to shock the VHL and win the Continental Cup for good measure. 

 

Celebrations like this were common in Quebec City for Jake Wylde, as his best statistical seasons happened while playing for the Meute.

 

Despite another disastrous playoff exit for Wylde, General Manager Clinton Chevy was undeterred, and decided to bring in Niklaus Mikaelson himself to get the job done in Season 44. It paid off, and Quebec City not only finished on top of the North American Conference again, but the entire VHL, securing another Victory Cup. Even though his statistical production didn't match his numbers from the year before, Jake Wylde was still the best of the best as far as blue liners were concerned in the VHL. His 24 goals and 68 assists for 92 points, along with a staggering +51, 227 hits, and 127 blocked shots earned him his third All-Star selection, along with his second straight Sterling Labatte Trophy. After defeating the New York Americans in five games, the Calgary Wranglers faced off against Wylde and the Meute. A very similar script played out once again, as Quebec City won Game One 4-2, then proceeded to score a total of two goals the rest of the series, including an embarrassing 6-0 shutout loss on home ice to end the series. Yet another team that ousted Wylde from the playoffs went on to win the Cup, defeating the Cologne Express in six games. This time, however, Clinton Chevy decided it was time to rebuild after losing Aksel Thomassen to free agency, and shortly after the season began, Jake Wylde found himself with the Calgary Wranglers, the same team who had so utterly humiliated the Meute.

 

Led by future Hall of Famers Bismarck Koenig and goaltender Hans Wingate, the defending champions were primed for another run with Jake Wylde on the blue line. Used more as a defensive presence, Wylde still put up respectable scoring numbers, with 16 goals and 48 assists for 64 points, adding 206 hits and 100 blocked shots. Calgary lived up to their potential, securing the second seed after finishing one point shy of the New York Americans. With a strong finish, Calgary  was clicking at the right time, and going into his final chance for a Continental Cup, he received even more motivation when the Wranglers faced off against none other than the Quebec City Meute in the first round. Simply put, his former team stood no chance, and was quickly swept out of the way, setting up a showdown with the top-seeded New York Americans. Calgary's dominance continued, and five games later, Wylde's playoff woes were fading fast as the Wranglers defeated the Americans in five games to advance to the Continental Cup Finals for the first time in his career. In an ironic twist, the final games of Jake Wylde's career would be played against the team where it all began: the Helsinki Titans. Calgary quickly got to work beating Helsinki on the road the first two games of the series, then a win on home ice in Game Four put the Wranglers just one more win away from the Continental Cup. However, just when it seemed like Jake Wylde had finally exorcized his demons, he was faced with one last evil: the dreaded 3-1 curse. The Titans suddenly roared to life, and the Wranglers went from frontrunners to spectators in their own dreams, which had suddenly become a nightmare. Suddenly, Calgary went a win from repeating to down 4-0 in Game Seven inside a raucous barn in Helsinki that could smell the completion of the comeback. The championship dreams of both the Wranglers and Jake Wylde came to an end that fateful night as he left the ice for the final time. 

 

What should have been the happiest night of Jake Wylde's VHL career instead became his worst, as the Calgary Wranglers squandered a 3-1 series lead in a 4-1 loss in Game Seven, the final game of his career.

 

Two years later, in his second season of eligibility, Jake Wylde achieved immortality by being inducted into the VHL Hall of Fame, very fittingly alongside one of his former Quebec City teammates, Aksel Thomassen. Although he had not managed to win a Continental Cup, by all accounts Wylde had more than delivered upon the massive hype placed upon him during his career. A two-time Sterling Labatte Trophy winner in an era dominated by Conner Low and Matt Bentley was no small feat, and he is rightfully remembered as one of the best defensemen of his era. Fourteen seasons after his retirement, Jake Wylde was further immortalized with the creation of the Jake Wylde Trophy in Season 59, which has been awarded to the best defensive defenseman in the VHL ever since. Several players have won it multiple times, but the most memorable moment of the award's existence would have to be Condor Adrienne and Lincoln Tate sharing the award in Season 74, with the two best defensemen of the era sharing the stage in triumph one last time. Additionally, it also allowed Adrienne to become the first player in VHL history to win the Sterling Labatte, Alexander Valiq, and Jake Wylde Trophies in the same season. It's something that Wylde himself never had the chance to achieve, and we'll never know if it's something he would have been able to pull off. But the fact that Jake Wylde very likely could have speaks volumes about the kind of difference-maker he was on the ice, and a perfect example of the mark his lasting legacy has had on the VHL.

 

Player Mentions: @jRuutu, @boubabi, @Advantage, @STZ, @Slobodzian_18, @Seth, @fever95, @Beketov, @Higgins, @Bushito, @Corco , @OrbitingDeath , @Kendrick, @Mike, @stevo, @Frank, @Brovy, @Da Trifecta, @BOOM, @CowboyinAmerica, @Smarch, @Victor, @Tate

[Doomsday 4,130]

Obligatory multi-claim post

[BOOM 8,746]

That was a nice one, especially because @STZis one of my favourite members. Mentioning Koenig also helped 

 

Well done @Doomsday