Origins for Defensive VHL Awards

[Renomitsu 934]

By the end of the regular season, plenty of the league's most involved users have at least some idea of who they want to receive awards at the end of the season. After all, when we look at stats on the portal, in the index, or in other media pieces, we're looking for the statistical best at... well, something. Those who we deem worthy of being called the 'best' get an award to commemorate the occasion - but now with nearly seventy seasons under this league's belt, some of the very namesakes we've attributed these awards to have gone by the wayside, lost to the annals of history.

 

Today we examine some of the honors we bestow on the statistical leaders and the legends we draw their inspiration from; and I'm sure you'll notice a very personal trend in the ones I've chosen to review once we get started!

 

Sterling Labatte (S10 HoF) - Best Defenseman

(Most Recent Winner - Joseph @McWolf)

 

It wouldn't be one of my articles without taking a look at the "best defenseman" in some capacity, right? Sterling Labatte, a Canadian defenseman of early season fame, is in fact the oldest of the inductees here. As a selection from Season 1's Supplementary Draft, and again in Season 2's Entry Draft (specifically the seventh pick of the first round), @sterling is a name that has been well-established and well-respected in the league effectively as long as it's been around.

 

Though I never got a chance to see him play even in my earliest stint with the VHL (~S16), Labatte has been a household name in Calgary and shoo-in Hall of Famer since the second or third season of his career. He got off to a white-hot start with the Wranglers, winning the league's inaugural Victory Cup and winning the North American Conference after being in the league just momentarily. He participated as a headliner for Team Canada from Season 2 through the majority of his career, and proceeded to win three Continental Cups - twice at the start of his career (S2, S3) and once again at the end (S8). His accolades list is as long as the stories league historians write about him, and he was a two-time recipient of the Orr Trophy -- the award given to the Best Defenseman before the split, and prior to its renaming in honor of this Calgary legend.

 

Initially, Labatte was actually an overwhelming force on offense - with a staggering 102 points and a +93 in his very first season, he was one of the league's best playmakers. He amassed 782 points, including 572 assists, in his eight seasons, and added on to that another entire season in playoff games alone (79 GP, 83 points) while scoring game-winners in about one in ten playoff games he participated in. He wasn't much of a hitting defenseman (776 over eight seasons), but his seemingly-unmatched offensive output and career awards, there's arguably no better paragon of effective defenseman play than Labatte.

 

Jake Wylde (S47 HoF) - Defensive Defenseman

(Most Recent Winner - Ryan Sullivan Jr. @Advantage)

 

Though @STZ was once better known for Hall of Famer Ethan Osborne, his longest-standing legacy with the league now is another one of his players in Jake Wylde. Wylde, a massive 6'5" defenseman drafted about halfway through the league's existence (by GM rule in S38) to the Helsinki Titans, epitomizes the toughest and most ruthless enforcers in the Victory Hockey League.

 

Though he did not win a Continental Cup during his career, Wylde was a four-time All-Star and played for both the European and American Conferences. As the league was much better-established at this point in time, Wylde's early career was actually largely devoid of awards; his only accolade from his first few seasons was an All-Star selection in Season 40. By the time Season 43 had rolled around, the Titans were yet again rebuilding, and Wylde chose to leave for the Quebec City Meute so Helsinki would have better draft position (and additional assets to work with). But as he came to his latter four years, he won the Labatte Trophy twice and was in the playoffs for the last five seasons of his career.

 

By the end of his career, Wylde would be best-known for accumulating 2,001 hits in the regular season alone -- which, to be clear, is more than the number of shots he took. He started explosively, with a monstrous 278 hits and 170 shots blocked in just his first season while playing for the Titans. And although the moniker 'defenseman' may be a bit misleading provided what we judge as valuable statistics in the VHL, Wylde was all grit and physicality. He managed well over 100 SB per regular season in his career before playing his final game on November 1st, 2015 -- a heartbreaking game 7 matchup against the team that drafted him: Helsinki.

 

Alexander Valiq (S42 HoF) - Offensive Defenseman

(Most Recent Winner: Joseph @McWolf)

 

Valiq, one of three Swedish brothers to enter the VHL, ties in quite nicely with Wylde - in fact, Valiq's career was sufficiently before Wylde's that Valiq was in the same draft class as STZ's Ethan Osborne. Further, he went on to play for the Quebec Meute in the seasons before Wylde made a similar transfer. But instead of making Valiq a side conversation in a story that should be about him, let's cut to the chase: Valiq is one of the best offensive defensemen to have ever played the game.

 

Taken by Riga in Season 30, Valiq, Osborne (S38 HoF), and Yuri Grigorenko were all hotly-contested and debated top selections on the night of the draft. While Osborne and Grigorenko would go on to have successful careers in their own right, Valiq made an immediate impact on the league by scoring 24 goals (including 4 game-winners) for 54 total points in his first season. And like Riga just a couple of seasons ago, this Reign team was young, promising, and ready to make a big impact on the league. Although he'd need to wait until Season 32 to make his playoff debut, he was already well-established by that point: in Season 31, he effectively doubled his offensive output, totaling 110 points with 59 goals.

 

Indeed, as one of the inaugural members of the Quebec City Meute thanks to agent/new General Manager Pavel Koradek's promotion, Valiq had no choice but to buoy a struggling first-year expansion team. But somehow, he'd improve even further on his sophomore season by tallying a massive 121 points, good for third in the goal-scoring race and some mutterings in the conversation for the Labatte.

 

Valiq's legacy is considerable, and although Quebec City no longer possesses a VHL franchise, his impact on the city was undeniable. Just a handful of seasons after they received their beloved hockey team, Quebec City hoisted the Continental Cup. Though some were concerned that Valiq didn't have enough left in the tank to continue carrying the franchise, he'd managed a +72 that year while contributing 29 goals and 40 assists. His thousands of hours practicing on the rinks in Riga and Quebec had paid off, and it'd all but confirmed his status as a celebrity in the Canadian city for years to come.

[Gustav 6,331]

5 hours ago, Renomitsu said:

Jake Wylde (S47 HoF) - Defensive Defenseman

[Renomitsu 934]

14 hours ago, GustavMattias said:

DEFENSE