Two ROTY dark horses

[VattghernCZ 1,105]

The Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy winners usually fall within two categories: the best rookie starting goaltender, or the top scoring rookie skater.

 

This year's top rookie starting goaltender was Deadpanda, giving the strong Menace team some quality goaltending.

 

Deadpanda  @Alex 42-13-9, .915 SV%, 2.66 GAA, 6 SO

 

While these are not particularly impressive stats in comparison to other recent Stolzschweiger winning goaltenders, the fact no rookie skater ran away with point totals makes it not a particularly hot take to say Deadpanda is the ROTY frontrunner. So far, the hybrid era ROTY winning goalies are:

 

(S96) Spider Panda  45-15-3, .920 SV%, 2.27 GAA, 9 SO

(S88) Lachlan Summers 39-18-7, .930 SV%, 2.3 GAA, 4 SO

(S87) Matt Murdock 39-21-4, .930 SV%, 2.39 GAA, 4 SO

(S84) Augustus Kennedy 25-34-5, .930 SV%, 2.80 GAA, 6 SO

(S83) Ben Dahl 33-27-4, .930 SV%, 2.74 GAA, 2 SO

 

The closest comparison for Deadpanda would be Spider Panda, as both played their rookie season atter the most recent sliders change. While Deadpanda didn't quite reach Spider Panda's save percentage, they still provided some quality goaltending for a strong team. With possibly back-to-back ROTY goaltenders and Red Panda already being one of the league's top goaltenders, the pandas are really taking over the VHL. I bet lemorse is really happy about that.

 

The top scoring rookie forward last season was Brendan Petan Jr  @sadie with 27 goals and 47 assists for 74 points with plus-4 rating, 136 hits and 62 blocked shots. Among the ROTY winning forwards in the hybrid era, 74 points would rank 4th out of total 9. That's actually more impressive than what I initially thought before starting to write this, so I might be way off with my take. Still, I need the 6 capped and I think Deadpanda would still win the award.

 

As for the top scoring defenseman, Narnia Shaw  @Dabnad took the first place with 8 goals and 44 assists for 52 points with a very impressive plus-50 rating on a fantastic Malmö squad, 39 hits and 97 blocked shots. Really impressive offensive numbers, but the defensive part of the game doesn't seem to be there just yet.

 

Which brings me to my two dark horses. These are two defensemen who could have a shot based on their really strong defensive performance.

 

Dark horse 1: Slava Kovalenko  

@OblivionWalker Slava Kovalenko did something really impressive: he was second in blocked shots. Not second among the rookies, but second among all players, with insane 232 blocks to go with 118 hits. The minus-38 rating doesn't look good for someone whom I'm praising for their defense, but Warsaw wasn't a good team, which is obviously reflected in the plus-minus rating. If a goaltender with losing record can win the ROTY, why a minus defender couldn't? 17 goals as a rookie defenseman is really impressive as well. 17 assists isn't spectacular, but someone has to score a goal for a player to record an assist. And once again, Warsaw wasn't great.

 

Dark horse 2: Alagsantere Groenvold

I've never thought I'd throw in my player's name as a ROTY consideration. But I'm really surprised with how well he did. Just like with Slava, the plus minus rating minus-57 looks brutal on what's supposed to be a defense-first defender. But London is another team in early stages of a rebuild. Santy finished three places behind Slava in blocked shots league-wide with 202, along with quite remarkable 189 hits. He also added a bit more offense than Slava with 13 goals and 35 assists for 48 points, the second highest point total among rookie defensemen.

 

Will we see the Stolzschweiger Trophy awarded based on defensive play? Highly unlikely, but it would be cool to see.

Edited February 3 by VattghernCZ

[OblivionWalker 320]

All I could do is my best . . . And I tried.

[rory 1,969]

i lost ROTY with a .932 and 2.15 GA on a much worse NYA team. deadpanda should not even be in the discussion.

[Pifferfish 699]

On 2/2/2025 at 2:50 PM, VattghernCZ said:

The Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy winners usually fall within two categories: the best rookie starting goaltender, or the top scoring rookie skater.

 

This year's top rookie starting goaltender was Deadpanda, giving the strong Menace team some quality goaltending.

 

Deadpanda  @Alex 42-13-9, .915 SV%, 2.66 GAA, 6 SO

 

While these are not particularly impressive stats in comparison to other recent Stolzschweiger winning goaltenders, the fact no rookie skater ran away with point totals makes it not a particularly hot take to say Deadpanda is the ROTY frontrunner. So far, the hybrid era ROTY winning goalies are:

 

(S96) Spider Panda  45-15-3, .920 SV%, 2.27 GAA, 9 SO

(S88) Lachlan Summers 39-18-7, .930 SV%, 2.3 GAA, 4 SO

(S87) Matt Murdock 39-21-4, .930 SV%, 2.39 GAA, 4 SO

(S84) Augustus Kennedy 25-34-5, .930 SV%, 2.80 GAA, 6 SO

(S83) Ben Dahl 33-27-4, .930 SV%, 2.74 GAA, 2 SO

 

The closest comparison for Deadpanda would be Spider Panda, as both played their rookie season atter the most recent sliders change. While Deadpanda didn't quite reach Spider Panda's save percentage, they still provided some quality goaltending for a strong team. With possibly back-to-back ROTY goaltenders and Red Panda already being one of the league's top goaltenders, the pandas are really taking over the VHL. I bet lemorse is really happy about that.

 

The top scoring rookie forward last season was Brendan Petan Jr  @sadie with 27 goals and 47 assists for 74 points with plus-4 rating, 136 hits and 62 blocked shots. Among the ROTY winning forwards in the hybrid era, 74 points would rank 4th out of total 9. That's actually more impressive than what I initially thought before starting to write this, so I might be way off with my take. Still, I need the 6 capped and I think Deadpanda would still win the award.

 

As for the top scoring defenseman, Narnia Shaw  @Dabnad took the first place with 8 goals and 44 assists for 52 points with a very impressive plus-50 rating on a fantastic Malmö squad, 39 hits and 97 blocked shots. Really impressive offensive numbers, but the defensive part of the game doesn't seem to be there just yet.

 

Which brings me to my two dark horses. These are two defensemen who could have a shot based on their really strong defensive performance.

 

Dark horse 1: Slava Kovalenko  

@OblivionWalker Slava Kovalenko did something really impressive: he was second in blocked shots. Not second among the rookies, but second among all players, with insane 232 blocks to go with 118 hits. The minus-38 rating doesn't look good for someone whom I'm praising for their defense, but Warsaw wasn't a good team, which is obviously reflected in the plus-minus rating. If a goaltender with losing record can win the ROTY, why a minus defender couldn't? 17 goals as a rookie defenseman is really impressive as well. 17 assists isn't spectacular, but someone has to score a goal for a player to record an assist. And once again, Warsaw wasn't great.

 

Dark horse 2: Alagsantere Groenvold

I've never thought I'd throw in my player's name as a ROTY consideration. But I'm really surprised with how well he did. Just like with Slava, the plus minus rating minus-57 looks brutal on what's supposed to be a defense-first defender. But London is another team in early stages of a rebuild. Santy finished three places behind Slava in blocked shots league-wide with 202, along with quite remarkable 189 hits. He also added a bit more offense than Slava with 13 goals and 35 assists for 48 points, the second highest point total among rookie defensemen.

 

Will we see the Stolzschweiger Trophy awarded based on defensive play? Highly unlikely, but it would be cool to see.

Another dark horse IMO that should be nominated (not win) is Taylor Swift, this player got kind of screwed by being benched the first 20 games but ended at about a PPG. Also 21 Goals in 54 GPs. YNFR has 30 in 72. 

[VattghernCZ 1,105]

5 hours ago, rory said:

i lost ROTY with a .932 and 2.15 GA on a much worse NYA team. deadpanda should not even be in the discussion.

 

Deadpanda is in my predictions, I need them or Groenvold to win!

[Pifferfish 699]

12 hours ago, VattghernCZ said:

 

Deadpanda is in my predictions, I need them or Groenvold to win!

Narnia winning would be cool imo but unlikely