Was Valtteri Vaakanainen SNUBBED from S77 Playoff MVP??

[Victor 10,580]

It's been a couple weeks now since the S77 playoffs ended with another Seattle championship and what seems like the inevitable goalie playoff MVP win. Although I was the beneficiary of Rara Rasputin's Kanou Trophy and it was merited at least through the first 60% of Seattle's run, my own vote went to Bears top scorer Timothy Brown, who also came up with some clutch goals along the way. However, the statline that also caught my attention was on the losing team – Valtteri Vaakanainen putting up nearly a 2 point per game pace in Helsinki's runners-up campaign. It's been a while since we gave the Kanou to a player on the losing team, especially a non-goalie, but if Vaakanainen couldn't do it (he only ended up receiving one vote) then who possibly could?

 

To investigate whether Vaakanainen's lack of recognition was a true outlier, I decided to look at an exclusive list of players who got 30+ points in one postseason.

 

S32: Connor Evans (NYA) – 31 points, Radislav Mjers (NYA) – 30 points in 17 games

 

We start in S32 not out of laziness but because S31 was the first season where teams could potentially play 3 rounds in a single playoffs, meaning the maximum games played in the first 30 seasons was 14. It would take a superhuman effort to get 30 points in such a short space of time – so obviously Scotty Campbell managed to do it once – but otherwise there's little to see for our purposes.

 

S32 was a pretty wild year as New York ended a long cup drought by discarding defence, running a rookie goaltender and adopting a shoot on sight policy. With two all-time great forwards in Tukka Reikkinen and Alexander Chershenko on the team this was a sensible approach and although they got 27 and 26 points respectively, the heroes were the less heralded Connor Evans and defenceman Radislav Mjers, the latter getting the Kanou. Although clearly this was a high-scoring team effort, the defenceman's stat line was deemed the most impressive of his teammates which doesn't really help this research in any way.

 

S33: Elijah Incognito (RIG) – 34 points in 20 games

 

Riga exacted their revenge on New York in S33 but following the exact same formula (including downgrading in net by shipping their starter to New York) with one nuance – their offence came from their star defenceman. Elijah Incognito had a postseason for the ages, arguably securing his Hall of Fame place and a clear-cut playoff MVP. Again, not very comparable to Vaakanainen because Incognito was a defenceman and on the cup-winning team. We move on.

 

S34: Alexander Chershenko (CGY) – 36 points, Volodymyr Rybak (CGY) – 31 points in 21 games

 

OK, now here is a very comparable scenario. Chershenko set a still-standing playoff points record with his teammate and compatriot Rybak not far behind as Calgary made it within a win of an unlikely championship (again with an average goalie and with not much depth on defence). Vaakanainen's point-per-game pace is actually more impressive than Chershenko's was (as the Wranglers went to Game 7 in each playoff series in S34), although Chershenko had double the goals (18 vs 9). That, along with the cup-winning goalie in S34 only posting a .919 save percentage might explain the voter love not being spread to Vaakanainen in the same way 43 seasons later.

 

S44: Tyler Cote (CGY) – 31 points in 16 games

 

The roaring 30s seemed to come to an end after that triple punch and there is actually one other entry on this list before the 70s. Unheralded center Tyler Cote took a page out of Connor Evans' book and took the attacking reins for Calgary's underdog run in S44, ending up as a deserved playoff MVP after their shock cup win, with only some criticism of stat-padding in the early rounds (the same argument was actually levied at New York's S32 squad). Although a forward, the lack of real competition made this a cakewalk for Cote and doesn't really compare to the situation in S77.

 

S74: Brock Louth (VAN) – 32 points in 19 games

 

A similar situation to Cote, 30 seasons removed, although slightly more controversial as Louth edged out teammate Jeff Downey based largely on his finals performance, despite Downey nearly matching with 11 goals and 29 points as a defenceman. However, as teammates on the cup-winning team, Louth and Downey were the obvious favourites and there was no one with a strong case from the losing side.

 

S77: Valtteri Vaakanainen (HSK) – 32 points in 18 games

 

So where does that leave us? When I set out writing this article, I thought Vaakanainen was unfortunate to be an afterthought in the Kanou discussion, being only the eighth player ever to put up 30 points in the postseason. Every single player before either was crowned playoff MVP or saw a teammate get the award, but only two (Chershenko and Rybak) were on a losing team like Vaakanainen. The Finn having fewer than 10 goals also evidently worked against him, as did two impressive candidates from the cup-winning team. It appears that in addition to having a phenomenal run as a skater, you also need the perfect storm of all goalies having a terrible time and probably a very balanced final (it's been over 10 seasons since a cup final reached Game 7). Unfortunately for Vaakanainen, that didn't fall into place – although I suppose regardless he'd have preferred a championship after Helsinki came so close 3 times during his career so far.

 

Therefore, despite the clickbait title, I hereby decree that Vaakanainen was not in fact snubbed of the Daisuke Kanou Trophy in Season 77 and was instead a solid option on a strong ballot – and who knows, with the Titans' overall impressive playoff record, he may still have a chance to make amends before retiring. It may be one to follow as his career winds down and also whether this, like the early 30s, opens the floodgates for more high-scoring playoffs, especially after rosters are trimmed once the VHLE is up and running.

[McWolf 3,112]

I was coming here to happily claim I voted for him. But with the conclusion, I'm not too sure I wanna brag about that anymore

[a_Ferk 761]

He had less than 10 goals, was on the losing team and several other candidates also had strong cases. He was pretty screwed in my eyes.

[a_Ferk 761]

Also why doesn't the title say FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY

[Victor 10,580]

52 minutes ago, a_Ferk said:

Also why doesn't the title say FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY

I possess powers you can not fathom.

[Beketov 8,685]

Lahtinen just missing the 30 point cutoff with 27 in 14 games. If only we could have made the finals, that Kanou could have finally been mine.

[Victor 10,580]

Week 2 of 2