Brett Slobodzian Trophy Voting Bias?

[Berocka 2,263]

Brett Slobodzian Trophy Voting Bias?

 

So I feel like every season that I go into the thread for the trophy voting that player number one on the ballot receives a disproportionate amount of votes. Sure maybe they are significantly the best player. But if the best player is being put at the top of the ballot every season then isn't it already being decided before we really have a vote. Now this is all a hypothesis, I haven't done any research yet to back it up. I think my findings will show that the first person in the ballot receives more votes than the other players and the top goalie will receive more votes that the second goalie on the ballot.

 

Research I will go back to S74 and include the number of votes received and the number of those votes that went to the top skater and goalie on the ballot. I will also state the position of the top three on the ballot. Please note I will NOT be doing any recommendations on the actual best player. This is due to the Brett Slobodzian Trophy to be somewhat subjective on the team they played for. I would also like to state there are always 5 players on the ballot unless otherwise stated.

 

S74 (four candidates)

Total votes: 85

Top skater votes: 27

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): 8 (4)

Number of goalies: 1

Third place ballot spot: 3 S

Second place ballot spot: 1 S

First place ballot spot: 2 S

 

S75 (six candidates)

Total votes: 165

Top skater votes: 50

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): N/A

Number of goalies: 0

Third place ballot spot: 6 S

Second place ballot spot: 2 S

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

S76 (four candidates)

Total votes: 169

Top skater votes: 75

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): 32 (4)

Number of goalies: 1

Third place ballot spot: 4 G

Second place ballot spot: 3 S

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

S77 (eight candidates)

Total votes: 162

Top skater votes: 76

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): N/A

Number of goalies: 0

Third place ballot spot: 6 S/7 S

Second place ballot spot: 3 S

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

S78 (nine candidates)

Total votes: 138

Top skater votes: 70

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): 8 (8)

Number of goalies: 2

Third place ballot spot: 6 S

Second place ballot spot: 2 S

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

S79

Total votes: 142

Top skater votes: 9

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): N/A

Number of goalies: 0

Third place ballot spot: 1 S

Second place ballot spot: 3 S

First place ballot spot: 2 S

 

S80 (six candidates)

Total votes: 147

Top skater votes: 23

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): 63 (1)

Number of goalies: 1

Third place ballot spot: 2 S

Second place ballot spot: 3 S

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

S81 (six candidates)

Total votes: 144

Top skater votes: 89

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): N/A

Number of goalies: 0

Third place ballot spot: 5 S

Second place ballot spot: 6 S/3 S

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

S82

Total votes: 153

Top skater votes: 22

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): N/A

Number of goalies: 0

Third place ballot spot: 3 S

Second place ballot spot: 4 S

First place ballot spot: 5 S

 

S83

Total votes: 144

Top skater votes: 43

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): 63 (1)

Number of goalies: 1

Third place ballot spot: 4 S

Second place ballot spot: 2 S

First place ballot spot: 1 G

 

S84

Total votes: 130

Top skater votes: 45

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): 41 (4)

Number of goalies: 1

Third place ballot spot: 3 S

Second place ballot spot: 4 G

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

S85

Total votes: 120

Top skater votes: 45

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): 35 (5)

Number of goalies: 1

Third place ballot spot: 2 S

Second place ballot spot: 5 G

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

S86

Total votes: 121

Top skater votes: 54

Top goalie votes (position on ballot): 24 (4)

Number of goalies: 2

Third place ballot spot: 4 G

Second place ballot spot: 3 S

First place ballot spot: 1 S

 

Interesting findings

 

- Position one appears in the top three of all season but S82. 

- Position one finishes first in 10/13 times.

- The only time a goalie has ever won the Brett Slobodzian Trophy is when they appear first in the ballot.

- Apart from S82 the winner was either in the first or second spot on the ballot.

- S82 the obvious outlier had Taro Tsujimoto as the top of the ballot.

- Multiple goalies only appeared twice, S78 and S86 in season 78 the second goalie had one more vote than the first goalie on the ballot. Neither placed in the top three.

 

In my conclusion it is most beneficial to appear first on the ballot. And if you are a goalie the only chance you have of winning is if you appear first on the ballot. I believe having less candidates is more beneficial to an even spread of voting. I think the most fair way of doing the Brett Slobodzian Trophy Voting is to have the candidates randomly ordered and only have between 4-6 candidates. In a perfect world it would be best if everyone had their own personal randomised list to remove any bias.

 

I personally am not very statistically minded I know simple stats but wouldn't be able to do a more thorough analysis than what I have completed above. If anyone would like to have a closer look please tag me so I can read it.

 

Anyway thanks for reading my media spot it would be interesting to see if people consider this an issue. I could just be making a mountain out of a molehill. I am sure Darkspyro will use this as reasoning why goalies are always looked over for awards.

 

1000+ words claiming two weeks.

 

 

[Gustav 6,469]

2 hours ago, Berocka said:

- S82 the obvious outlier had Taro Tsujimoto as the top of the ballot.

 

[Berocka 2,263]

39 minutes ago, Gustav said:

 

It was an interesting find

[Beketov 9,103]

Out of morbid curiosity, does this trend continue if you go back to the seasons I was posting the poll, or does it already? I don’t recall when Vic was tasked with the job.

 

I don’t mean it that he has done anything wrong or that I didn’t, simply that I know I never aimed to have any implicit bias in the matter (I’m sure Vic doesn’t either, I just can’t speak for him) so I’d be curious to see if that’s how it played out.

[Berocka 2,263]

10 minutes ago, Beketov said:

Out of morbid curiosity, does this trend continue if you go back to the seasons I was posting the poll, or does it already? I don’t recall when Vic was tasked with the job.

 

I don’t mean it that he has done anything wrong or that I didn’t, simply that I know I never aimed to have any implicit bias in the matter (I’m sure Vic doesn’t either, I just can’t speak for him) so I’d be curious to see if that’s how it played out.

I can do a further investigation to see if the trend continues

[Berocka 2,263]

Week 2

[Victor 11,022]

On 1/9/2023 at 2:10 AM, Beketov said:

Out of morbid curiosity, does this trend continue if you go back to the seasons I was posting the poll, or does it already? I don’t recall when Vic was tasked with the job.

 

I don’t mean it that he has done anything wrong or that I didn’t, simply that I know I never aimed to have any implicit bias in the matter (I’m sure Vic doesn’t either, I just can’t speak for him) so I’d be curious to see if that’s how it played out.

I mean I just always go top scorer, top goalscorer, top dman, top goalie in order. Maybe I should mix it up for science.

[Beketov 9,103]

1 hour ago, Victor said:

I mean I just always go top scorer, top goalscorer, top dman, top goalie in order. Maybe I should mix it up for science.

I feel like that’s probably all I did as well which is why I was curious. I know I added more options but they tended to get votes split up in a similar manner.

[Berocka 2,263]

2 hours ago, Victor said:

I mean I just always go top scorer, top goalscorer, top dman, top goalie in order. Maybe I should mix it up for science.

S83 you put the goalie first and they won. 

 

34 minutes ago, Beketov said:

I feel like that’s probably all I did as well which is why I was curious. I know I added more options but they tended to get votes split up in a similar manner.

I went back and looked at when others posted and the earliest I found was a 59 the top person won with 50% of votes. It seems someone new did it each season after that 

[Victor 11,022]

10 hours ago, Berocka said:

S83 you put the goalie first and they won.

Incredible. Maybe i should start putting the clear worst choice top from now on.