VHLM S69 Award Tracker, 1st Edition

[McWolf 3,116]

 

VHLM Award Tracker

Preview of the S69 VHLM Award Races

 

Last week's VHL Award Tracker proved to be a great success, presenting early favourites for different awards and generating interest discussions along the way. To please the couple members that have requesting VHLM from us for a while, we decided to keep the same format and preview with you the road to the VHLM Awards.

 

Ethan Osborne Trophy

 

Surprisingly enough, the points leader 25 games into the season is a defenceman. Even more surprisingly, it doesn't look like he's stopping anytime soon and he's my favourite to win the Osborne Trophy at the end of the season. Actually, scratch that. I believe two defencemen are the current favourites to claim the award, Saskatoon Wild teammates Danny DeYeeto and Edwin THE Encarnacion. They pace all skaters with respectively 60 and 56 points. Among forwards that could catch them up and fight for the accolade, we have two of the pair's teammates with the Wild, Jesse Nyman (53 points) and Dagmar Havlova (51 points), along with Roadkill Steve (56 points), Patrik Tallinder (54 points) and Jaxon Walker (51 points).

 

Alexander Chershenko Trophy

 

Two players are currently tied as the best goalscorers in the VHLM with 30 goals in 25-to-27 games: San Diego Marlin Roadkill Steve and Mississauga Hound Patrik Tallinder. Steve isn't new to this kind of success, as he scored 63 goals in Season 68, finishing third behind a pair Las Vegas Aces, Jeff Tates and Benny Graves. For the younger Tallinder, 30 goals is a more impressive total as he is now just 4 off of his career-best. Both players possess quick hands and a dangerous wrister and could stay over their goal per game rate until the end of the season, though a regression should be expected, as it's been a really long time since a player finished the season with 72 goals or more. Should they fail to keep up, Justin Rushmore (25 goals), Jesse Nyman (23 goals), Ben Storm (23 goals), Raleigh Ritchie (23 goals), Shush Nyko (22 goals) and Jaxon Walker (21 goals) are leading a close pack of challengers. 

 

Vladimir Boomchenko Trophy

 

If there's a chance Danny DeYeeto and Edwin THE Encarnacion get caught up in the points leaderboard, I think it won't be as simple for runner-ups when it comes to the Boomchenko Trophy, given to the league's assists leader. The Saskatoon Wild defensive pair has collected 39 and 38 assists, respectively. The team has been unstoppable so far and, as long as they keep on scoring that much, DeYeeto and THE Encarnacion should gather apples. The forwards that could realistically give them a run for the award include Dagmar Havlova (34 assists), Liam Rooney (34 assists), Kris Rice (30 assists) and Jaxon Walker (30 assists).

 

Ryan Sullivan Trophy

 

Danny DeYeeto of the Saskatoon Wild is easily the early favourite to win the Ryan Sullivan Trophy. He leads the league in points with 60 and has the 6th most hits with 81 after the first third of the season. His teammate Edwin THE Encarnacion is an obvious runner-up as he only trails DeYeeto by 4 points, but sits way farther down the hits list with 51. The two of them are also not blocking many shots, but that could be explained by the fact that they are playing on a team that controls the puck most of the game. If the committee decides to value defensive process more, Oskar Lagesson (33 PTS, 87 H, 34 SB), Shawn Glade Jr (34 PTS, 37 H, 65 SB) and Blacker Velvet (33 PTS, 33 H, 52 SB) could all see their names appear on the ballot, though the award is realistically DeYeeto's to lose at this point. Last season' winner, Alyksander Hunter also appears to be in the mix, as he has a statline of 51 points, 65 hits and 35 shots blocked.

 

Benoit Devereux Trophy

 

Winner of 26 games in 27 starts, Jacques Lafontaine is riding the wave with the Saskatoon Wild and could very well win the Devereux Trophy off of it. He's pacing all goaltenders with a .900 save percentage and 1.78 goals-against average. The Canadian goaltender is basically for the award already unless, of course, if the Wild collapses and Lafontaine start to fall in all 3 categories. The shortlist of present runner-ups that could fight for the award in that case include Jimmy Spyro (18 W, .872 SV%, 2.42 GAA), Nicolas Fomba (16 W, .873 SV%, 2.80 GAA), Isak Sjostrom (15 W, .877 SV%, 2.59 GAA) and Boris Boris (15 W, .894 SV%, 2.72 GAA).

 

Matt Bentz Trophy

 

Last season's Matt Bentz Trophy winner, Minnesota Storm winger Chett Bandy, could yet again be this season's forward. He's one of the VHLM's best power forwards at the moment, as he has collected 48 points and 94 hits, which both rank him in the top 10 in the league. The player that has the best shot at challenging him for the award is Saskatoon Wild's Ondrej Ohradka. The Slovak winger has scored 38 points and added a respectable 69 hits. However, one of Justin Rushmore (56 PTS, 50 H), Patrik Tallinder (54 PTS, 41 H) and Jaxon Walker (51 PTS, 40 H) could also be in the mix at the end of the season if they continue to throw bodies around despite not being renowned power forwards.

 

Mitch Higgins Trophy

 

At this point in time, I'd say the early MVP favourite is none other than Saskatoon Wild defenceman Danny DeYeeto. He's already been named as the favourite to win the Osborne, the Boomchenko and the Sullivan, with this hypothetical Higgins Trophy taking his Award Night's haul to a historic four. The fact that he's leading the league in assist with 39 and in points with 60, while presenting great hit totals with 81 as a defenceman should be enough for his name to appear on the ballots. The only player at this moment that seems like he could give DeYeeto a run for his money, other than his partner Edwin THE Encarnacion (56 PTS, 51 H), is fellow Wild Jacques Lafontaine, who is off to a historic start with 26 wins in 27 starts to go with his .900 save percentage and his 1.78 goals-against average. Something would have to happen for the Wild players to not keep up as favourites throughout the season but, if it happens and they do somehow fall in our rankings, Roadkill Steve (56 PTS, 26 H), Patrik Tallinder (54 PTS, 41 H), Jaxon Walker (51 PTS, 40 H) and Chet Bandy (38 PTS, 94 H) could lead the charge

 

Once again, we're late one sim with the statistics in our award tracker. It's only two games, so the picture we painted is still valid. If anything, these two games helped cement Danny DeYeeto's point lead and, at the same time, his MVP status. So, good continuation to the players mentioned among the favourites in this article and, for the others, you still got two thirds of the season to improve your stats.

 

Players mentioned: @Cran @Tagger @Jesse Nyman @diamond_ace @stevo @Patrik Tallinder @hewasajazzman @PotatoKing @STZ @street @BigBallerFromDownUnder @DangerGolding @SDCore @elrune1988 @Krice13 @fever95 @ShawnGlade @Higgins @Jaku @SlapshotDragon @Spyro @efiug @Austin2997 @Walter Fizz @animal74

 

VSN Writer McWolf

[McWolf 3,116]

The DeYeeto Show

[Nykonax 1,566]

17 minutes ago, McWolf said:

Ethan Osborne Trophy

 

17 minutes ago, McWolf said:

Alexander Chershenko Trophy

 

18 minutes ago, McWolf said:

Mitch Higgins Trophy

i remember when dahlgoat won these

[McWolf 3,116]

11 hours ago, Nykonax said:

 

 

i remember when dahlgoat won these

Ottawa Lynx legend Elias

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

18 hours ago, McWolf said:

 

Benoit Devereux Trophy

 

Winner of 26 games in 27 starts, Jacques Lafontaine is riding the wave with the Saskatoon Wild and could very well win the Devereux Trophy off of it. He's pacing all goaltenders with a .900 save percentage and 1.78 goals-against average. The Canadian goaltender is basically for the award already unless, of course, if the Wild collapses and Lafontaine start to fall in all 3 categories. The shortlist of present runner-ups that could fight for the award in that case include Jimmy Spyro (18 W, .872 SV%, 2.42 GAA), Nicolas Fomba (16 W, .873 SV%, 2.80 GAA), Isak Sjostrom (15 W, .877 SV%, 2.59 GAA) and Boris Boris (15 W, .894 SV%, 2.72 GAA).

 

 

Gonna win the Benoit, just like his hero, Alexander Pepper!

[McWolf 3,116]

14 minutes ago, SlapshotDragon said:

 

Gonna win the Benoit, just like his hero, Alexander Pepper!

@Sonnet 10 SO in S62