VHL S69 Award Tracker, 2nd Edition

[McWolf 3,116]

 

VHL Award Tracker

The edition where we are basically done with the season

 

We are now entering the final stretch of the regular season. Teams have all played 70 or 71 games, meaning players only have 1 or 2 more games to do what they need to do if they want their names engraved on one of the league’s prestigious end-of-season trophies. We went through this once, at around the 16-game mark, if I remember correctly, so here’s the long-awaited update. For some awards, our early favourites are still in the fight with other players to see who’ll be on top come playoff time. For other awards, the race is no more and I’m confident I could guess the winner right now with a high level of certainty. Finally, some players I tabbed as leaders three weeks have completely fallen off the radar. Without further ado, here are the current favourites to win 12 of the Season 69 VHL Awards.

 

 

Mike Szatkowski Trophy

 

If Mikko Aaltonen looked like he was running away with the Mike Szatkowski Trophy at the quarter-mark, things are not looking so clear when we fast forward 50 games. The top of the leaderboard features two players with an actual shot to win the award: Vancouver Wolves’ Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Helsinki Titans’ Julian Borwinn. They are currently one point away from one another, with HHH scoring 91 points in 71 games and Borwinn scoring 90 in 70 games. If Borwinn can overcome the tiny difference between HHH and himself, it would be his second Szatkowski in 4 seasons. Other players still have a distant shot at getting the award, namely Julius Freeman (87 points) and Kronos Bailey (83 points), though they’d need to finish their season strong, while their own teammates don’t score much, to be able to accomplish this feat.

 

Kevin Brooks Trophy

 

As it was the case for the Mike Szatkowski Trophy, Mikko Aaltonen has been on a cold scoring streak and has been passed when it comes to the goals leaderboard as well. The new leader, Julius Freeman of the Vancouver Wolves, has now scored 44 goals in 71 games, 11 more than he had last season. He now holds a 3-goal lead on his teammate Hunter Hearst Helmsley but, with only one game left in the regular season, it would need a hat trick from him to win the Kevin Brooks Trophy over Freeman. The player that actually has the best odds to win it over the Wolves forward is Titans’ Julian Borwinn. At 40 goals in 70 games, he’d have to overcome a 4-goal deficit in 2 games to at least tie Freeman. Unless a miracle happens, Freeman will be winning the first Kevin Brooks of his career.

 

 

Alexander Beketov Trophy

 

For every award so far, there are pretty much only two players who can realistically have their name engraved on the trophies, but it’s particularly true for the Alexander Beketov Trophy. Moscow Menace defenceman Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen has led the race for the assists leader pretty much all season, but another challenger has caught up to him recently. In fact, Diljodh Starload was quiet in the first half of the season, but he’s now pacing all skaters in assists with 66, 1 over Werbenjagermanjensen’s 65. In comparison, their closest challenger, Kronos Bailey, only has 53 assists, meaning one of Starload and Werbenjagermanjensen will come home with the Beketov Trophy, after the VHL Award Show.

 

 

Alexander Valiq Trophy

 

Going from the Beketov to the Valiq Trophy, we are not actually moving too far in terms of favourites for the awards. As a matter of fact, the same two players, Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen and Diljodh Starload are tied for the points lead among defensemen with 82. The Menace defenceman might have the edge at the moment, as his 17 goals are more (only one more, but still) than Starload’s 16, but we’ll have the see the outcome of both players’ last game of the regular season to see who goes home with the Valiq at the conclusion of the season. Will Werbenjagermanjensen be able to win his second consecutive Valiq trophies, or is Starload going to finally put his name on his first award in his last season before retiring?

 

 

Jake Wylde Trophy

 

I will be absolutely honest here: I don’t really know what the award committee looks at when it comes to the Wylde Trophy voting. Over the years, some defencemen got passed for it despite having more shots blocked and hits than the actual winner, only because their plus-minus was negative, but some others actually won it with negative differentials. It’s hard to say what stats are going to be the most important ones this year, so I’ll highlight a couple of players who could be favourites, depending on how the voting is directed. Guillaume Fontenette is currently pacing all skaters in shots blocked with 161 and has a strong +10 differential, but only has 39 hits. Cinnamon Block is not too far from the top in shots blocked with 138, and is one of the league’s best physical defenseman, as displayed by his 209 hits, but shows a differential of -12. Finally, Jerry Garcia seems like one of the better-balanced candidates, with a respectable haul of 132 shots blocked, 149 hits and +9 differential. Some others could actually be considered, but I think these three cover the most realistic ones.

 

 

Sterling Labatte Trophy

 

When it comes to the Sterling Labatter Trophy discussions, I feel like there is absolutely no contest at this point in time. The reigning winner, Moscow Menace defenceman Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, is tied for the league lead in points with 82 for a blueliner and second at the position in hits with 257 (behind Lance Flowers’ 262). He has also blocked enough shots (113) to show he’s potent in the defensive zone. If I had to name one player who maybe could win the best overall defenceman award over Smitty, I’d say the one with the best bet is Guillaume Fontenette. His 161 shots blocked rank him 1st in the league, while his 64 points place him 4th among defencemen. However, he lacks the hits total to make him as universally relevant as Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, which is basically the problem with every other candidate for the award. No other player is as dominant in every category, which is what led me to say the race was not really a race anymore.

 

 

Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy

 

The Christian Stolzchweiger award race could basically go one of two ways. Either voters go the same way the went last season, and vote a defenceman with strong defensive numbers that will inevitably be considered for the Jake Wylde Trophy, or they go with the rookie forward with the most points. In the first case, Prague Phantoms’ Cinnamon Block would be the one coming out with the award. He currently sits at 39 points, good for second among rookies, but truly shines as one of the best defensive blueliners in the whole league, thanks to his 138 shots blocked and 209 hits. In the last case, New York Americans’ Soren Jensen looks like he’d be the one to write his name on the trophy. He has the potential to become one of the league’s best power forwards, as he currently leads all rookies in points with 51 while gathering an impressive total of 94 hits in 71 games.

 

 

Dustin Funk Trophy

 

When it comes to this season's most improved player, we have a couple of worthy candidates. First, we have Hunter Hearst Helmsley. The former 1st overall pick had trouble adapting to the VHL speed and was seen as a bust-up until this season. He's having a solid breakout season, scoring 41 goals, 91 points and adding 291 hits, ranking in the top 2 in all three categories. However, despite being seen as an underperformer, his S68 statline of 65 points and 188 hits still made him a solid power forward for the Wolves. It remains to be seen if this improvement is enough for him to claim the Dustin Funk. At this point, I feel like the actual front-runner is Guillaume Fontenette. He went from 3rd best blueliner behind two veterans on the Titans squad to apparent best defenceman on the team this season, more than doubling his points total along the way (64 from 25) and he's way more involved in the defensive zone too, blocking a league-high 161 shots blocked, up from 108 last season. Shawnomir Jagr (32 G, 80 PTS, up from last season’s 24 G, 45 PTS), and Aston Martin (31 G, 69 PTS, up from last season’s 13 G, 34 PTS) could also be considered for the award.

 

 

Scott Boulet Trophy

 

Whereas the race for the Scott Boulet Trophy was very close among the four or five early favourites after 15 games, we are now down to only two serious candidates. Both lead in a very important statistical category while trailing by only a bit in the other. In fact, while Hunter Hearst Helmsley is first in the league with 91 points, he sits at the 2nd rank for hits with 291, trailing our other candidate by only 25. That puts Randoms at an impressive 314 hits and he's only 6 points short of the league-leading HHH. The difference between the two players in both their plus-minus and the total amount of shots blocked is negligible, though if it comes down to it, it might be important to note that Randoms is the leader in both. 

 

Greg Clegane and Aidan Shaw Trophies

 

I talked about the two goaltender awards separately last time, but we have come to the point where one player has run away in both races and he's definitely going to be voted unanimously as the winner of the Shaw. I'm talking about Riga Reign's netminder Kallis Kriketers. He leads all goaltenders in literally every category with 44 wins, .932 SV%, 1.66 GAA and 10 SO. He dropped a bit from his early historical pace but should conclude this season with numbers that place him just outside the top 25 for best save percentage and a goals-against average over the course of a single season. It would be a disservice to Kriketers to even try and point out who the runner-ups might be, given how far everyone else's statistics are from the Latvian goalie.

 

Scotty Campbell Trophy

 

Offence is way down when compared to recent seasons. No forward will score over 100 points. Only 2 defencemen are breaking the point-per-game plateau, but they are so close together - and not so impressive when compared to other strong performances from this era - that it makes it hard to say one of them is the most valuable player of the Victory Hockey League. In this season, driven by strong defensive teams, it only makes sense that our pick for MVP is the best goaltender this season: Kallis Kriketers. His 44 wins, .932 save percentage, 1.66 goals-against average and 10 shutouts all rank 1st in the whole league and combine as one of the best goaltender stat-lines in recent memory. Unless something truly catastrophic happens in the last sim, or if the voting committee really forces things so a skater wins the award, I think the Reign franchise netminder is a lock for the Season 69 Scotty Campbell Trophy.

 

 

Oh boy, this one came out a lot later than I anticipated, but this past week has been chaotic to say the least. I initially started to work on it last week, but things came up and here it is now, on ththe exact day the regular season ends. Good luck to everyone mentioned here when it comes to award voting.

     

Players mentioned: @GRZ @Beaviss @Jubo07 @rjfryman @Quik @flyersfan1453 @Dil @okochastar @omgitshim @GustavMattias @CowboyinAmerica @Velevra @TheLastOlympian07 @Sullvino @hedgehog337

     

VSN Writer McWolf

Edited December 23, 2019 by McWolf

[McWolf 3,116]

inb4 shitty timing

[zepheter 590]

[Dil 1,763]

43 minutes ago, McWolf said:

inb4 shitty timing

Shitty timing.

 

 

VALIQ AND BEKETOV IS MINE

[Dil 1,763]

1 hour ago, McWolf said:

Dustin Funk Trophy

the funk is also Starload’s. Thanks

[Gustav 6,469]

1 hour ago, McWolf said:

Over the years, some defencemen got passed for it

I still say I was FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY last season.

[okochastar 97]

4 hours ago, Dil said:

the funk is also Starload’s. Thanks

 

no no dil 

 

you already got enough shit rep

 

i need to sweep the table to really make people feel good about the 12 weekly welfare

[.sniffuM 1,741]

FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY

[ThePerfectNut 563]

We had rookie who had near 70 pts last year (or was it around 65), but still didn't won ROTY and only had one single vote. If he can't win in or at least have more votes, idk which rookie forwards can this year.

[Beketov 9,101]

2 minutes ago, Jtv123 said:

We had rookie who had near 70 pts last year (or was it around 65), but still didn't won ROTY and only had one single vote. If he can't win in or at least have more votes, idk which rookie forwards can this year.

You can’t really compare many awards in a year by year basis though. In S62 the Stolzy winner had like 140 points or something crazy but we can’t say that should be the standard for winning it. The fact that someone had 70 points and lost it last year doesn’t mean that a forward can’t win this year up against different competition. Every season is different.

[McWolf 3,116]

8 hours ago, GustavMattias said:

I still say I was FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY last season.

i'll be honest, that's what was written at first. I'm ashamed

[ThePerfectNut 563]

1 hour ago, Beketov said:

You can’t really compare many awards in a year by year basis though. In S62 the Stolzy winner had like 140 points or something crazy but we can’t say that should be the standard for winning it. The fact that someone had 70 points and lost it last year doesn’t mean that a forward can’t win this year up against different competition. Every season is different.

We shall wait and see who wins it this year