Tom Eagles - FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY Nomination

[Greg_Di 937]

 

At the end of Season 82, Tom Eagles had the best season of his career. Even going on to win the Wylde trophy as the best defensive defenseman.

What caught many by surprise was that he was not nominated for the Dustin Funk award which is the most improved. Many fans and even Tom was shocked he was not even on the ballot as they believed he had a great chance of winning the Dustin Funk and ending the season with two award wins.

 

 

Let's do a breakdown of his S81 vs S82 and then compare his improved stats to the eventual winner.

Goals:
S81 - 16 goals

S82 - 21 goals

Difference - +5

 

Not a big difference here but Tom was never a scoring defenseman but we still see a little uptick from last season

 

Assists:
S81 - 49 assists

S82 - 84 assists

Difference - +35

Here we saw a huge increase from the past season, at the twilight of his career he managed to improve his assists by 35 over the past year. 84 assists is a massive achievement for anyone and especially a player that would go on and retire after season 83.

 

Points:

S81 - 65

S82 - 105
Difference - +40

Another great improvement over the last year and ended up being the best season of Tom's career.

+/-:
S81 - +2

S82 - +52
Difference - +50

Another massive stat that maybe gets a little overlooked. Tom finished with an incredible +50 to end the season. Another career high for this defender.

Hits:

S81 - 235

S82 - 217
Difference -  -18

 

This is the only stat that decreased during this season for Tom. As players get older they tend to hit less so this was expected. There wasn't too big of a difference and he still had a respectable 217 hits on the season.

Shots Blocked:
S81: 137

S82: 228

Difference: +91

 

Another huge stat for an aging star. Tom blocked an extra 91 shots in S82. He put his body on the line to help prevent goals from going in and was a huge difference maker for the Wranglers

 

 

Comparisons to eventual winner: Eagles comparison in red

 

Darth Kaprizov (Eventual Winner): 
Goals - +31      +5

Assists - +24   +35

Points - +55     +40
+/- : +33           +50

Hit: +16             -18

SB: -3               +91

 

 

Total Count:
Darth: 156

Eagles: 203

Adding up the totals above, Darth had a total increase of +156, while Tom had an increase of +203.

While I know this is not how the BOG calculates the winners, it gives you a bit of thought as to why Tom Eagles was not even nominated. Compared to some of the other candidates he should have been at minimum nominated for this award to go up against Darth. 

Putting up this kind of an improvement as a defenseman, I believe, would have given Tom a leg up to win this award if he were nominated. While we may never know if he would have won the award, it is definitely something to think about and is considered one of the biggest snubs in the Eagles dynasty.