Claimed:Edwin Reencarnacion should win the Most Sportsmanlike Award for Season 44 [Final 6/6]

[Tagger 2,722]

I lied in the title, we're gonna talk about who could win the Dustin Funk trophy

 

There are a lot of interesting award races this season but I’m paying particularly close attention this year to the Most Improved Player award. There are three candidates with a good shot at the award; New York Americans center Niklas Kurri, Calgary Wranglers goalie Hans Wingate and Helsinki Titans defenseman Pablo Escabar. There seem to be quite a few people favouring the latter of those three for the award but, in my honest opinion, I find Escabar to be the least deserving out of the three.

 

Sure if we look solely at statistics, then yes Pablo Escabar is indeed the most improved VHL player of Season 44, but a lot of this improvement is down to his trade to the Helsinki Titans. The trade to the rebuilding Finnish team meant that Escabar didn’t just have more minutes (He went from 27 minutes per game with Seattle in Season 43 to 31 minutes per game with Helsinki), but also meant more opportunities for him to make plays out of defense as he was the only human defenseman on the team. Those two scenarios make it exceptionally easy to put up substantially more points than you would on a competing team, trust me I’d know. In Edwin Encarnacion’s final season, I joined the Calgary Wranglers in free agency who, at the time of my signing, had no other defensemen (the team ended up trading for King Czar III 17 games into the season however). I had zero offensive capabilities due to my focus on checking, fighting and defense, yet I ended up finishing the season with 59 points, which was over triple the amount of points I had put up the season before. So basically in short, I don’t think Escabar should win the award for Most Improved Player when so much of his improvement was dependent upon his move to a less competitive team.

 

So for me, the two main competitors for this award are Kurri and Wingate. Both players have interesting stories surrounding their seasons; Kurri had swapped playing with perennial all-stars Aksel Thomassen and Bruno Wolf to sharing a line with rookies Edwin Reencarnacion and Jorma Ruutu after moving to the Americans in Free Agency whereas Wingate was playing with much more competent teammates after the Wranglers decided to make a push for the Season 44 VHL Continental Cup despite finishing in last place the season prior. Both players have been key assets for their franchises this season and will make the North American All-Star team easily. Wingate has gone from being one of the worst human goalies in his rookie season to becoming the likely winner of the Aidan Shaw Trophy whereas Kurri has made exceptional use of his limited minutes by recording a 100 point season despite only playing around 26 minutes per game (the last player to record a 100 point season playing less minutes than Kurri was Guido Schwartz Esq. back in Season 34).

 

At least if Wingate doesn't win this award, he will still likely take home the Aidan Shaw Trophy

 

In truth, this award race is going to be very close, but I’m going to give the advantage to Kurri based on the lack of success that goalies have had with winning the award. Since the trophy was introduced back in Season 21, only two goalies have won the Most Improved Player award (Eggly Bagelface and Joey Clarence) and it’s worth pointing out that, statistically, both of those players improved more than Wingate has done this season. 

[Da Trifecta 1,899]

Content: 3/3 I think Escabar should win MIP but we know Wingate will get it. His numbers have significantly improved. I doubt he gets the Shaw over Mikaelson tbh (at least I hope)

Grammar: 2/2 Nothing outside of the Canadian mistakes

Presentation: 1/1

 

Grade: 6/6

 

defenseman - defense man

[CoachReilly 688]

Claimed