S70 VHL Award Tracker

[McWolf 3,116]

 

VHL Award Tracker

S70 Midseason Edition

 

Hello everyone, and welcome to this season’s first edition of the VHL Award Tracker. At this moment, teams have played either 36 or 37 games, meaning that we are pretty much halfway through the season, which makes it a perfect time to assess the races for the different end of season trophies awards to the VHL’s best of the best. Without further ado, let’s kick it off with the Mike Szatkowski Trophy, given every year to the player that scored the most points.

 

 

Mike Szatkowski Trophy

 

The first award we are going to look at is one for which the race promises to be exciting until the very end of the season. In fact, there are currently three players tied at 48 points in 36 games atop the scoring leaderboard, making it a three-way tie when it comes to determining favourites for the Mike Szatkowski Trophy. Experts think the player who has the best shot to come on top in the second half of the season is Julian Borwinn, who already has two Szatkowski trophies to his name, but it doesn’t mean Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Jet Jaguar don’t have what it takes to finish the season with the most points scored. After all, the three of them are on a pace for a haul of 96 points.

 

 

Kevin Brooks Trophy

 

The lead in the Kevin Brooks Trophy is about as tight as the one for the Szatkowski, as two players have been taking the lead alternating fashion since the start of the season. Former Season 66 winner, Julian Borwinn of the Helsinki Titans, is currently a single goal ahead of his main rival, Jet Jaguar of the Moscow Menace. Their respective 25 and 24 goals put them at a safe distance from the third-best goalscorers so far, Mat Tocco and Matthew Materazo, who have both scored 20 goals in 36 games. It would take a massive collapse from both current favourites and a great second half for one of their rivals for the trophy to not be awarded to either Borwinn or Jaguar.

 

 

Alexander Beketov Trophy

 

We have witnessed a trend in the last couple of seasons, where forwards skillset makes them better shooters than ever before, leaving the primary quarterback and playmaker roles to the blueliners. It is once again the case this season, as three defensemen are tied at 31 assists in 36 games, creating a three-way tie in the race for the Alexander Beketov Trophy. Moscow’s blueliner Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen is only one year removed from a Beketov-winning campaign - before finishing a single assist behind Diljodh Starload last season - and once again finds himself near the top at this point of the season. He shares the lead with his Menace teammate Vladimir Pavlov and Riga Reign's phenom Apollo Hackett. Though it looks like defensemen lead the way once again, it would be surprising to see a forward come out on top for once, as both Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Ben Hafkey are only 2 assists behind the leading group.

 

 

Alexander Valiq Trophy

 

This recent trend of defensemen leading the league in playmakers made it so the favourites for the Alexander Valiq Trophy, awarded to the VHL’s best offensive blueliners, are often in contention for the Beketov Trophy as well. This season makes no exception as Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, arguably the league’s best defenseman in the last couple of years seem to ahead in Valiq voting, thanks to a statline of 10 goals, 31 assists and 41 points. His closest rival in the Valiq race is his fellow Menace blueliner, Vladimir Pavlov, who only trails him by 3 goals. If not for them, Guillaume Fontenette of the Helsinki Titans could continue his rise to stardom and have a shot at the award, but he trails Pavlov by 3 points, putting him 6 behind Werbenjagermanjensen.

 

 

Jake Wylde Trophy

 

The Jake Wylde Trophy favourites are tough to determine because, unlike the other awards we talked about so far, it isn’t given to the leader of one particular statistic - the Valiq Trophy either, though it’s pretty much always given to the defenseman with the most points at the end of the season. For the Wylde, we must look at more than one statistic, without really knowing their specific impact in the race. It seems to me that the 4 players at the moment who could claim to be among the favourites for the award are Riga’s Apollo Hackett and Lincoln Tate, Helsinki’s Sidney Crosby and Toronto’s Rusty Shackleford. The Reign linemates both basically have the same skillset and showcase some good balance between their hits, shots blocked totals and their +/- - 91 hits, 73 shots blocked, +2 for Hackett, 97 hits, 70 shots blocked, -2 for Tate. Crosby could be compared easily to the both of them too, with a statline of 87 hits, 75 shots blocked and a -5. On the other hand, Shackleford is the kind of player that has gotten attention in Wylde voting in the past. He’s the only player to be in both the top 10 for hits and shots blocked - with 141 and 66, respectively - though he has an abysmal goal differential at -13 because he plays in a rebuilding team. So really, it depends what the voting committee is looking for, but I feel like these are the best options at the moment.

 

 

Sterling Labatte Trophy

 

The Sterling Labatte Trophy race can be brought down to pretty much only four players. First, we have Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, who won the award in the last two seasons and now leads all defensemen in points, assists, while still accumulating strong defensive numbers - 94 hits, 54 shots blocked. Then, we have Werbenjagermanjensen’s partner with the Menace, Vladimir Pavlov, who trails him by 3 points but shares the league lead in assists with him. His defensive numbers might be even more impressive too, with 77 hits and 69 shots blocked that ranks him 6th in the whole league. Another player that should be considered for the Labatte is Apollo Hackett, who has been mentioned in the Beketov and Wylde races already, as he too shares the league lead with 31 assists, though he scored fewer goals than the previous two. His 91 hits and 73 shots blocked are among the league’s best defensive statline. Our last potential winner of the award is Guillaume Fontenette, who is currently 3rd in defenseman scoring with 35 points while leading the league in shots blocked with 79. The stat that might hurt him the most, however, is the hits column, since he has never been known as a heavy hitter and never finished with more than 40 hits.

 

 

Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy

 

If there’s one race that isn’t even a race already at the midseason point, it’s the one for the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s best performing rookie. In the first half of the season, Helsinki Titan Erik Summers has separated himself from the other first-year players’ thanks to a respectable production of 20 points as a defenseman. The rookies closest to him in the rookie scoring leaderboards - Kris Rice (16 points), Edu Stava (14 points) and Milos Slavik (13 points) - are all forwards, which means that they don’t have nearly as much of an impact as the blueliner in their own zone. In fact, Summers only trails Chad Magnum, Ben McGirr and Raleigh Ritchie in hits by a rookie, and he’s 3rd among rookies in shots blocked, behind only David OQuinn and Odin Omdahl. Unless he collapses, Summers should be named the Season 70 Rookie of the Year and lift the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy.

 

 

Dustin Funk Trophy

 

If Season 70 was to finish right now, we might see a repeat of last season, when a young goaltender walked away from the Award Show with the Dustin Funk Trophy. In fact, A Red Guy went from 20 wins, a .906 save percentage and a 2.99 goals-against average in his rookie season to 32 wins, a .9.23 save percentage and a 2.15 goals-against average in his sophomore season, the same kind of exponential growth that Menace’s netminder, Raymond Bernard who, at the halfway of this season, bears a statline of 23W, .918SV%, 2.15GAA, compared to last season’s 22W, .903SV%, 2.15GAA. However, if Bernard can’t keep it up, I’d see one of Ben Hafkey or Mat Tocco swooping in to win the award, as both players have now scored 41 points, which puts them on a pace for 82 points, a lot more than the respective totals of 34 and 55 they amassed last season.

 

 

Scott Boulet Trophy

 

The Scott Boulet Trophy, given supposedly to the league’s best two-way forward or, as the engine has it, the league’s best power forward. After the first half of the season, it looks like the defending champion is leading the way and might win it again this year. In fact, Randoms’ 147 hits put him first in the league, while his 43 points have him in the top 10, which seems like a perfect balance for a great power forward. His most serious rivals for the title at this point in time would probably be leading scorer Julian Borwinn (48 points, 120 hits), and a trio of heavy hitters who all have recorded fewer hits and fewer points than Randoms, Ryan Kastelic (37 points, 140 hits), Tyler Barabash Jr (34 points, 131 hits) and Matthew Materazo (36 points, 128 hits). I’ll conclude this part by saying it’s pretty sad that the only thing that the engine allows us to use to compare defensive contribution from forwards is their relative number of hits and their seemingly random blocked shot totals.

 

 

Greg Clegane and Aidan Shaw Trophies

 

Last season, I bundled the Greg Clegane and the Aidan Shaw trophies together because, to me, it seems like the favourites for an award is inevitably a favourite for the other one as well. For instance, at this point, the leader in both races would be Seattle Bears’ Rayz Funk, whose 2.12 goals-against average and .929 save percentage rank him first among VHL goaltenders. His most serious competition would be Raymond Bernard, who leads the league in 23 wins, while only trailing Funk in the other two columns by a bit (2.15GAA, .928SV%). Next in line would probably be JB Rift (20W, 2.15GAA, .923SV%) and Greg Eagles (17W, 2.19GAA, .924SV%), though it’s safe to say Funk and Bernard are a step ahead of them.

 

 

Scotty Campbell and Brett Slobodzian Trophies

 

And here we go, another bundle of trophies to end this whole thing. I didn’t even speak about the Brett Slobodzian last season but, truth is, it’s really easy to pretend that I’m considering it in this paragraph because, really, the Campbell and the Slobodzian most of the time both go to the same players or at least it’s the same two or three players that appear to be seriously considered for both. It still applies this season though, I must admit, no player seems to have a statline warranting of the overwhelming favourite status, so we will just look at the favourites for other trophies, the best players at their respective positions, and work from there. Aidan Shaw and Greg Clegane trophies favourite Rayz Funk has easily been the most consistent goaltenders so far this season, giving the Seattle Bears a shot at a victory night in night out and could follow the way Kallis Kriketers paved last season, making it the second campaign in a row in which a goaltender goes all the way to be named most valuable and most outstanding player of the VHL. As far as defensemen go, Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen would be the only one with a distant shot at winning one of the two end-of-season awards, though his numbers are not as impressive as his numbers in other seasons, and he wasn’t considered in these other seasons, so I doubt this is the season we finally see a blueliner be named MVP again. Actually, I think the award is currently being disputed mostly between two forwards, the two players who are currently leading the league in points, who are within only a single goal from each other: Helsinki Titans’ Julian Borwinn and Moscow Menace’s Jet Jaguar. They are both on pace for 50-goal, 95-point seasons, which doesn’t seem that impressive until you realize scoring has been trending down in the last couple of seasons and only a handful of players even reach the 50-goal and 90-point marks every season now.

 

 

It will be interesting to see the way these races shape up during the second half of the season because, let’s be honest here, nothing is set in stone and the competition for these prestigious titles is as fierce as ever. I tried to talk about a couple of players for every award, but basically everyone - except maybe Erik Summers for the Stolzschweiger - is only one bad week of sims away to be dropped from contention altogether. Everything is still possible, both for players deemed as favourites at the halfway point of the season and for players who don’t appear to be considered for an award at the moment. Good luck to all!

     

Players mentioned: @Jubo07 @Beaviss @gorlab @Matmenzinger @Matt_O @flyersfan1453 @Dil @Victor @Renomitsu @McLovin @okochastar @Tate @SidTheKid87 @K1NG LINUS @Erik Summers @Ricer13 @Edustava @Frank @Corco @cartoes @DangerGolding @David O'Quinn @zepheter @.sniffuM @Mr_Hatter @hedgehog337 @Enorama @Bushito @Rayzor_7 @Devise @Greg_Di

     

VSN Writer McWolf

[Banackock 8,138]

@Berocka  Wanna start the snub party early? 
 

[Motzaburger 1,590]

FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY

[JeffD 648]

JEFF DOWNEY MAKING RUNS FOR AWARDS

 

WATCH OUT

[McWolf 3,116]

22 minutes ago, Proto said:

No award for best first-gen player?? Already FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY

Jubo is a first gen, Rayz too. There you go

[McWolf 3,116]

57 minutes ago, Banackock said:

@Berocka  Wanna start the snub party early? 
 

we talked about it already

we're not in talking terms anymore

[Victor 11,021]

Moscow Moscow Moscow 

[MexicanCow123 915]

Dam I've been having a fantastic year. Thought I'd be in here somewhere, I gusse not 

[McWolf 3,116]

5 hours ago, Victor said:

Moscow Moscow Moscow 

Very Moscow and Helsinki heavy, yes

[zepheter 590]

I'm irrelevant and still found a way to get mentioned. Let's go!

[McWolf 3,116]

1 hour ago, zepheter said:

I'm irrelevant and still found a way to get mentioned. Let's go!

I tag every player I name. That way I get more views without going the shameless way and tagging @members