Claimed: The S54 Sterling Labatte award winner is...?

[hedgehog337 3,480]

 

 

*FUCK OFF, THE LABATTE AWARD IS MINE!*

 

A quick preview of the battle for the best defenseman award. In green - why a player can win the award. In red - why a player isn't going to win the award. 

 

 

BOBBY DIGITAL, New York Americans

 

*He is the best puck feeder with 80 assists. Also, his 125 SB and 265 hits are also the respectable stats.

*He's the only NY's active def. That's not an easy task to hold the oponents offense while being alone. He did a very good job with making Holik's job easier.

 

*Not the best +/- rating. Probably because he's the lone NY's defenseman.

* Other defensemans have more points than Digital. 

 

 

LEE KING SNATCH, Stockholm Vikings

 

*+93 rating. I know Stockholm was a dominant force all season long, but it's still impressive.

*10,53 % shot accuracy. I assume he's a nice option for PP with that accuarcy he has. 

 

*Only 68 hits. Probably it's not the most important stat for the defenseman, but a lot of other D's have more hits. 

*Not enough points. 82 is good, but some guys have more. 

 

 

BLACK VELVET, Helsinki Titans

 

*11,69 % shot accuracy. Even more impressive than LKS has. 

*He's a good all-around defenseman. He can score (86 points), make a physical play (229 hits) and defending his own net (85 blocks)

 

*Even his 86 points aren't enough to be a leader among all defs.

*Still not the best in everything. In other words, he's very solid, but not the best in overall. 

 

 

TITAN KRONOS, Quebec City Meute

 

*A point leader among defs alongside with Petenis.

*120 shot blocks. That's really good, considering that Quebec is one of the league leaders. 

 

*37 hits. I guess he's just not built like that, but it still lowers his chance.

*31.24 AMG or 2.249 minutes total. That means he had more chances for having better stats than anybody else of this list. 

 

 

GUNTIS PETENIS, Riga Reign

 

*39 goals, the best among all defensemans.

*Leader in hits (396), 3rd in shot blocks (184), 93 points (leader among all defs with Titan Kronos).

 

*He was playing in a medicore team. I think a player is having the better stats while playing in a worse team. Like Jacob - he will likely win an RoTY in a bad Calgary team, etc. 

*And only +23 is a result of playing in the so-so team. But still, it's not the best thing if you want to have a shot at the Labatte trophy. 

 

 

 

It's going to be an interesting fight for this award. Some members, like @Devise is already naming Petenis as one of the candidates for the MVP award, but let's see an award show first. 

 

Who is going to win the Sterling Labatte award? If you have someone else who deserves to be mentioned on my list or you have an opinion on the previously mentioned players, go ahead. I must to name honorable mentions as well, like Fabio Jokinen, Tobias Klingberg or Elijah Dotran - they also had a really good season. 

 

 

That's it and I'm out. 

 

 

6 TPE goes to Krīgars.

 

 

 

@Higgins @Evans @gorlab @Smarch - all guy from my list

@jRuutu @Mr.Baller @Paramorise - honorable mentions

[gorlab 4,321]

Spoiler

It's Petenis.

 

[Gudnason 607]

My vote goes to Kronos