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S84 Las Vegas Aces Awards

Shindigs

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Shindigs

Shindigs 1,771

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

 

After another great season ending with us completing the back to back. 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 non-TDL recreate player on the team that earned the most total TPE that week.

 

So let's get going again shall we?

 

Aces MVP

Our nominees are:

Al Land @Big Dee
Cory Evans @orbit
Jimmy MacElory @Xflexz

Larry Abass Jr @RileyL

 

And the winner of the Aces MVP Award is *drumroll* Al Land @Big Dee!

Al Land set records this season, not a record. Multiple. He was the first player to hit 40, 50 and 60 goals in the hybrid era. The first to 100, and eventually reach the dizzying heights of 123 points. He was also part of perhaps the best two-way unit in the VHLM as they all soared to +/- in the 70s. Honorable mention to Cory Evans who, apart from a rough run at the very end of the season, sat at 1st or tied 1st in every single relevant goalie stat for the entire season. If Al Land hadn't had a record setting season, the award would have likely been his.

 

Aces Playoff MVP

Our nominees are:

Cory Evans @orbit

Larry Abass Jr @RileyL

Al Land @Big Dee

Reid Johnson @TopTiddee2

 

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

 

The winner of the Aces Playoff MVP Award is ... Larry Abass Jr @RileyL

To the surprise of absolutely everyone, the series where we lost the most games was the first round against Saskatoon, a series in which Larry Abass jr averaged 2 PPG for the entire series to get us past them and into the second round, where Abass did slow down considerably, before being back in full force in the finals to end the playoffs tied in most points on the Aces with Al Land, but with considerably more defensive play to back up those offensive numbers, as well as elite FO% to help keep the puck in our possession.

 

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

Al Land @Big Dee

With 123 points on the season, the 7th round pick from the S82 draft showed the league what's what in his final season in the M before graduation. Being part of the dynamic offensive duo with Hugh G Johnson, grounded by the every defensively vigilant Larry Abass Jr made for, without a doubt, the best 2nd line in the league. 

 

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

 

Aces Goals Leader

Al Land @Big Dee

Yes, it's Al again! With 60(!) Goals on the season he lead not just the Aces, but the entire league in his final season. That's no small feat and we in the Vegas organization consider ourselves very fortunate that Al Land has stuck with the program for all these seasons in the M. Being one of a small group of players who were drafted by the previous management team. But never went inactive and kept grinding away at it.

 

Aces Assists Leader

Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz

With a league leading 74 assists, this offensive monster (who doesn't actually have any offensive attributes) held on to the top spot for nearly the entire season, with only a short slump in the middle seeing him drop to 2nd for a day or two. But he ended on top, and that's all that matters.

 

Since Jimmy is already on the stage, we might as well get the next award out of the way.

 

Aces Top Offensive Defenseman

Nominees:
Reid Johnson @TopTiddee2

Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz

 

And as you may have guessed by Jimmy not leaving the stage, the winner is Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz

Now since Jimmy isn't actually an offensive defenseman, this feels a bit odd. But then he did score the 2nd most points of all defensemen. So it kind of has to be his, doesn't it? Having spent a fair significant portion of the season double shifted on the PP, until Reid was developed enough to shoulder that responsibility, meant that he played a much bigger role offensively than any of us had expected heading into this season. Despite that most his offense came from the rock solid possession play in Even strength, that translated into every puck that eventually ended up in the net going through Jimmy.

 

Aces Top Defensive Defenseman

Nominees:

Juan Ceson @dylanjj37

Grigoris Polyhronidis Jr @GP18

Womp Womp Womp Womp Womp Jr @AdamEss

Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz

 

The race for this award was surprisingly close, but in the end it has to go to ... Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz again. Congrats on the back to back Top Defensive Defenseman Awards!

We were blessed with 4 incredibly strong defensive defensemen this season, and all of them put up numbers that could be considered elite, but Juan, Grigoris and Jimmy had a bit of separation on the rest. And Jimmy's superior shot blocking meant that at the end of the day, it had to be his. Though once again Juan Ceson gave him a run for his money, and had GP been here all season, I have no doubt he would have made it nearly a three-way tie for this one.

 

Aces Top Goalie

Nominees:

Cory Evans @orbit

Joel Castle @animal74

 

And the winner, as expected, is Cory Evans @orbit!

As Joel didn't join us until TDL, this was really always going to be Cory's. But that doesn't take away from all the wins Joel gave us down the stretch. However Cory dominated his fellow goalies from start to finish (almost) in all relevant stats. Sadly an unfortunate run of games down the end meant that Bezos barely snuck past him on SV%. But he still held his throne for everything else, with some intimidating GAA, SO and Wins.

 

Lowest GAA Goalie

Cory Evans @orbit

Another back to back award win. As Cory got this as the backup last season, and held on to it this season with not just the best GAA on Vegas, but the best in the league for goalies who played enough games to get on the leaderboards at a 1.85 which again, if it wasn't for that unfortunate run at the end, could have been as low as 1.75.

 

Aces Top Rookie

Nominees:

Reid Johnson @TopTiddee2

Larry Abass Jr @RileyL

Hayden Bromley @theBombster

Robert Overmeyer @RobBro34

 

This is a really tough one, if we went purely 100% off on ice performance, I'd have to go with Larry for his amazing two-way performance. But taking into account leadership and LR presence, I'll have to give this to Reid Johnson @TopTiddee2!

Reid has steadily grown throughout the season, coming in as the 25th overall draft pick as primarily a welfare earner, but taking to the mentoring from his GM over time and growing and getting more involved as the season went along. Culminating in a spot as JST GM as well as being picked 9th overall in the VHL draft as a first gen, same exactly spot his GM went in. His dedication to both growing his player and keeping up a fun atmosphere in the LR has been a pleasure, and we'll miss him in Vegas now that he's graduated to the VHLE.

 

Aces Top Waiver Player

Nominees:

Grigoris Polyhronidis Jr. @GP18

Womp Womp Womp Womp Womp Jr. @AdamEss

The Frenchman @OrbitingDeath

Mats Zuccarello @Battlepopcorn

 

The winner is, our very own goon ... Womp Womp Womp Womp Womp Jr. @AdamEss!

Once again, if we go purely off player performance, I'd probably need to go with GP on this one. But Womp just has so much character and LR presence that it's hard to pass up on it. Always active and engaged, he's been a great addition to the LR and we're hoping to be able to get him back for another run in Vegas.

 

Aces Top Two-Way Forward

Nominees:

Fred Hampton @TownBizness

Larry Abass Jr @RileyL

Al Land @Big Dee

The Frenchman @OrbitingDeath

 

This one was super close, and if we didn't have a power forward award alongside the two-way forward award here in Vegas. It'd probably have gone to Mr. Abass. But since we do, the winner of the Top Two-Way Forward award is Fred Hampton @TownBizness!

As our 1C he had the somewhat unenviable role of carrying the 1st line hard enough to keep even with other teams 1st lines, while our stacked 2nd line got to run rampant on other team's 2nd lines. This is a tough job that I only want to put on the most elite of two-way centers. With Dogwood Maple leaving massive shoes to fill, Mr.Hampton was willing to re-imagine his game from a smooth skating winger to a well rounder two-way center over the off-season. To come back as an absolute force, nearly hitting 100 points while also being a stud in the faceoff circle for us this season. His importance to our ability to actually run the kind of lineup Vegas wants cannot be understated.

 

Aces Top Power Forward

Nominees:

Larry Abass Jr. @RileyL

 

Well, we only had one Power Forward this season. So the choice is pretty clear, but don't let that fool you into thinking he won it by default. He won it by being the single best Power Forward the VHLM has seen in the hybrid era, in my humble opinion. So congratulations on an award very well deserved Larry Abass Jr. @RileyL

The fact that Mr. Abass managed what he did as a power forward despite starting the season with as low TPE as he did is incredibly impressive. He was elite at absolutely everything, Top 10 in points for Centers, Top 10 in hits, Top 10 in +/-, Top 10 in FO%. What more could you ask?

 

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

 

Aces Top TPE Earner

Reid Johnson @TopTiddee2

With 154 TPE Reid comes in as the top TPE earner, ahead of Jimmy MacElroy with 146 and Larry Abass Jr with 134. Reid has a relatively slow start but snowballed as the season went along and ended the season as a consistent max earner who will be one of the big two in the future of Malmö's defense.

 

Aces Most High Roller Awards

Reid Johnson @TopTiddee2

I honestly had no idea who would get this at the start of the season, and Jimmy got off to a hot start with 2 relatively early wins. One off the back of a mighty impressive 43 TPE week. But Reid came from behind and ended the season with 3 High Roller wins, giving him the award.

 

This brings us to the final award of the ceremony!

 

The "Juan Ceson Award" (Aces Top Leader)

Nominees:

Reid Johnson @TopTiddee2

Juan Ceson @dylanjj37

Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz

Cory Evans @orbit

 

The winner is *drumroll* Juan Ceson @dylanjj37!

Now with him being our captain, and the only captain who identifies as a bot to lead a team to back to back cups in VHLM history, how could I not pick him? All the members of the leadership group in Vegas did a great job this season. And later addition without a letter on their jersey like Womp x5 Jr. and The Frenchman added a lot of charater (and baguettes) to the LR. But with our fearless leader going out there night after night and BEEPing all our opponents for us, while also keeping the bots in line, still just puts him in a league of his own. For better or worse.

 

That concludes our Vegas Awards for S84. 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 for the back to back, and I wish all of you the best of luck in your future VHL/E careers if you're moving on from Vegas after S84. For those of you who are still here, let's go for that threepeat. Shall we?

 

2123 words, no idea how many are just tags and headers etc. though. Claiming for some number of weeks.

Edited by Shindigs
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