S83 Las Vegas Awards (for real this time)

[Shindigs 1,772]

Welcome to the S83 Las Vegas Aces Award Ceremony, presented by Clue Glue™

 

After a great season ending with us as the Founder's Cup Champions. It's my pleasure to give out this years awards for the most prolific Aces. The awards that will be presented today are the following:

 

1. MVP

2. Playoff MVP

3. Points Leader

4. Goals Leader

5. Assist Leader

6. Top Offensive Defenseman

7. Top Defensive Defenseman

8. Top Goalie

9. Lowest GAA Goalie

10. Top Rookie

11. Top Waiver Player

12. Top Two-Way Forward

13. Top Power Forward

14. Top TPE Earner

15. Most High Roller Awards*

16. Top Leader

 

*The High Roller Award is awarded every week between the week ending after the VHLM draft and the last week of the playoffs. To the player on the team that earned the most total TPE that week.

 

So let's get going shall we?

 

Aces MVP

Our nominees are:

Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple

Velociraptor Greg @samx

Travis Clark @ClarkClanT

James Kagelberg @MatiasMa

 

And the winner of the Aces MVP Award is *drumroll* Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple!

Dogwood Maple was our best offensive producer in Even Strength, while also being our best possession specialist among our forwards. He was our rock on the 1st line and afforded us the luxury of stacking our 2nd line while still making the 1st line elite in its own right.

 

Aces Playoff MVP

Our nominees are:
Travis Clark @ClarkClanT

William Futch @Futch

Velociraptor Greg @samx

Rustyov Dusterov @LanerDUST

 

With how many players we had putting up big performances this list could have easily been made longer than those 4. But are the ones we finally got it down to.

 

The winner of the Aces Playoff MVP Award is ... William Futch @Futch!

Despite playing on the 3rd line and 2nd PP/PK unit. William put up numbers that equaled the players getting the most minutes, while also having the best FO% of anyone in the playoffs. He made our 3rd line a force to be reckoned with and let us win games while our top 6 was on the bench. That's huge! But Laner also had a huge playoffs, probably making him 2nd in line for it in my eyes.

 

Now we're moving on to the statistical awards, no voting required. Simon took care of that for us! <insert laugh track>

 

Aces Points Leader

James Kagelberg @MatiasMa

With 88 points on the season, our 4th round pick from this season's draft took the league by storm in his rookie season and was a huge part of why our 2nd line was the most dominant line in the entire league this regular season. 

 

But don't get off the stage just yet James, there's more to come!

 

Aces Goals Leader

James Kagelberg @MatiasMa

Yes, it's James again! With 37 Goals on the season he lead not just the Aces, but the entire league in his rookie campaign. That's no small feat and we in the Vegas organization consider ourselves very fortunate that James just barely stayed below the cut-off and has decided to stay with Vegas for the S84 campaign. Will he go for a repeat? We can only hope so!

 

Aces Assists Leader

Velociraptor Greg @samx

With 62 assists on the season our very own velociraptor was 9 ahead of the next closest Ace. No small feat for a creature that realistically shouldn't even be able to hold a stick, much less use it to be an elite playmaker from the point.

 

Since Greg is already on the stage, and moving a raptor about the premise is a bit scary at the best of times, we might as well ask Greg to stay on the stage for the next award too.

 

Aces Top Offensive Defenseman

Nominees:
Gruffud Theofylaktos @JigglyGumballs
Velociraptor Greg @samx

 

And as you may have guessed by Greg not leaving the stage, the winner is Velociraptor Greg @samx!

Greg's role on Vegas PP can't be understated this season. It simply would have been the same without the raptor praying on our opposition's weaknesses. Having easily put up the most PP minutes of any Ace and being a huge driving factor behind our strong end to the regular season and playoff alike. We couldn't have done it without Greg!

 

Aces Top Defensive Defenseman

Nominees:

Juan Ceson @dylanjj37

Gruffud Theofylaktos @JigglyGumballs

Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz

 

The race for this award was surprisingly close, but in the end it has to go to ... Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz!

Both Juan and Jimmy were throwing the body around alongside their super solid defensive play all season long. So and argument could be made for either of them. But Jimmy just barely edged out Juan on the possession side of things, while putting up an impressive 101 Shot Blocks, 30 more than Juan with 71. In the end that was enough to give Jimmy the edge. He was absolutely elite defensively and put up numbers I'd honestly never seen before the hybrid era. We are honored to have him with us again in S84 and wouldn't be surprised to see him going for a repeat!

 

Aces Top Goalie

Nominees:

Travis Clark @ClarkClanT

Cory Evans @Spaceium

 

And the winner, as expected, is Travis Clark @ClarkClanT!

As impressive as the things Cory managed to do as a backup was this season, this award has to go to Travis. He was statistically arguably the best goalie in the entire VHLM this season despite only getting starts against the harder teams. He was very consistent with bad games being very few and far between. Giving us the peace of mind to play our defensively responsible game that ultimately lead to us holding the top 9 spots on the +/- Leaderboard in the VHLM. It wouldn't have been possible without Travis performance.

 

Lowest GAA Goalie

Cory Evans @Spaceium

Despite his 21 games not counting as "enough" games to be on the STHS leaderboards, I consider it more than enough that his performance this season deserves an award. With a 1.37 GAA he was second to none, leading to him going 21-0-0 this season and picking up his new nickname "Unbeaten Goalie" in the Las Vegas LR. As Cory will still be with us in S84 I'm looking forward to seeing how he will build on this performance in the starter role.

 

Aces Top Rookie

Nominees:

Velociraptor Greg @samx

Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz
James Kagelberg @MatiasMa

Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple

 

Well, when the team MVP is almost in the Top Rookie race, it kind of goes without saying who will get it. You guessed it, it's Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple!

Dogwood takes the stage again. Every single one of our rookies this season lead the team in something. But the one player that was consistently near the top in every single aspect was Dogwood Maple. Which makes him just barely edge out the others in my book. A great performance all around!

 

Aces Top Waiver Player

Nominees:

William Futch @Futch

Gruffud Theofylaktos @JigglyGumballs

Fred Hampton @TownBizness

Andrew Tate @Pisco

 

The winner is, our very own faceoff specialist ... William Futch @Futch!

William Futch takes this one hands down, as instrumental as Gruff was in holding down the fort on our 2nd D pairing. The things William managed to do from the 3rd line, both in the regular season and the playoffs is very impressive. If we didn't get him on waivers we didn't win this cup. It's really that simply in my eyes.

 

Aces Top Two-Way Forward

Nominees:

Rustyov Dusterov @LanerDUST

Blake MacTavish @Blakemac22

Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple

William Futch @Futch

 

This one was quite close on the defensive end of things, with all of them having very comparable possession game. But at then end of the day it has to go to Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple!

This one is close, Futch had amazing possession numbers but his Even Strength production just wasn't quite there in the regular season. He turned it on in the playoffs. But Dogwood was doing much of the same from day 1 of the season all the way to the end. So it has to go to Dogwood, as both our top point producer per minutes played and our best possession guy during Even Strength. Blake was hot on his tail for the defensive side of things, but the offense just wasn't quite on the same level. And Rustyov was more of a PP specialist for us than a two-way forward. Even though he ended up with two-way numbers for the role he filled.

 

Aces Top Power Forward

Nominees:
Anton Bielas @Shawner40

Blake MacTavish @Blakemac22

 

Both of them were great in the role as power forward, but one one can win it and that one is Blake MacTavish @Blakemac22!

Blake really just did everything you could ask of a Power Forward this season. He had top 10 FO%, was up there in hits for forwards and put up goals, assists and points at a very good pace. Simply put if Blake was on the ice. You were probably about to have a bad shift as the opposition.

 

Time for a couple statistical awards again to mix it up!

 

Aces Top TPE Earner

Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple

With 184 TPE earned from his first full week on the Aces to his last week on the Aces. He comfortably coasted to first place in most TPE earned. Much as I had anticipated he would before the season started. Great job on the consistent competitive max earning Dogwood!

 

Aces Most High Roller Awards

Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple

I had anticipated he would run away with this more than he did to be perfectly honest. That's not cause he didn't earn as much as I expected though, but rather because we had a lot of player step up with huge weeks here and there. I mean Juan Ceson actually won this once, that's a miracle if I ever heard of one! But when all was said and done, Dogwood won the High Roller 4 times. Sam won it twice and all other winners were one-offs.

 

This brings us to the final award of the ceremony!

 

Aces Top Leader

Nominees:

Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple

Blake MacTavish @Blakemac22

Velociraptor Greg @samx

Juan Ceson @dylanjj37

 

The winner is *drumroll* Juan Ceson @dylanjj37!

Who else but our beloved Captain Best Bot Ever could get this award? Now realistically this award is given to whoever was the most active in our Discord LR. Which is still Juan Ceson aka. Captain Best Bot Ever. But he also was the leader we all needed on the ice, by BEEPing the opponents to bits! (BEEP is bot-speak for hitting)

 

That concludes our Vegas Awards for S83. Now regardless of it you won/didn't win awards and if you got nominated or not. It was a pleasure having you on the Aces and I wish all of you the best of luck in your future VHL careers if you're moving on from Vegas after S83. For those of you who are still here, let's go again. Shall we?

[dogwoodmaple 380]

What a season in Vegas!  Great locker room, great team, great organization