S71 VHLM Award Tracker: Part 2

[Patrik Tallinder 1,082]

 

 

VHLM Award Tracker

Preview of the S71 VHLM Award Races

 

With the VHLM regular season finished, it’s about time for an update on who could be taking home the league’s individual awards. We covered the early frontrunners in the last edition of VHLM Award Tracker about a month ago, and there have since been many to emerge as award candidates. Others have not been so fortunate, dropping out of the races.

 

Before we begin, I encourage you all to take a look at the wide variety of content here at VSN. We have articles about the history, the present, and the future of the VHL. It’s almost guaranteed that you can find something you’ll enjoy here, so be sure to check out some of these options:

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Ethan Osborne Trophy

     

Luckily for us, we already know the winners of these first few awards, given that they are entirely objective. These awards also seem to have a common theme, which will soon become apparent as this article progresses. Now, for the winner of the Ethan Osborne Trophy. This award is given to the VHLM’s leader in points, and has been dominated all season by a duo in Ottawa. It comprises two S71 draftees, Adam Syreck and Richard Penisson. While Syreck had the early lead, Penisson soon caught up, and he will be the one to take home the hardware. His 199 points were 18 above anyone else in the league.

 

Alexander Chershenko Trophy

 

Like the Ethan Osborne Trophy, the Alexander Chershenko is an objective award, handed out to the league’s leader in goals that season. A familiar face is the winner of this trophy. Once again, Richard Penisson leads the way with 77 goals on the season. His closest competitor was also from Ottawa, but it wasn’t Syreck this time. Big Chungus put up a stunning 72 goals as well, which was 10 more than anyone else besides Penisson. The top four in goals were actually all from Ottawa, displaying their amazing offensive capabilities.

 

Vladimir Boomchenko Trophy

 

To round out the offensive stat awards, the Vladimir Boomchenko Trophy is given to the league’s leader in assists. If you thought there would be any surprises for this trophy’s winner, you would be mistaken. Richard Penisson keeps on filling up his assumably huge trophy case with yet another award. His 122 assists sat atop the league this season, but not far behind was Adam Syreck, who had just 3 less assists than him. Three awards in, Penisson already finds himself with a trio of trophies.

 

Ryan Sullivan Trophy

 

Finally, we find ourselves a trophy that will have a fresh face as its winner. This is because the Ryan Sullivan Trophy is awarded to the VHLM’s top defenseman. Early on, Nikita Kulikovich looked like the favourite to win it, and not much has changed in that regard. The Marlins defenseman places top ten in points, assists, shots blocked and hits. His 126 points were good for second place among all defensemen, a single point behind the leader, Alex Armstrong. Armstrong’s lead in points, along with some nice defensive numbers, gives him a shot at this award as well. The league’s leader in plus-minus, Defenz Mann, may be considered for the Ryan Sullivan as well. Besides his lead in plus-minus, Mann is also 5th in points by a defenseman. It’s unlikely that his hit and shot block numbers are enough to win this award though, as they are major factors on the defensive side of things. Zyrok12 and Aamon Grim could also see some consideration, but their chances likely aren’t as strong as Armstrong and Kulikovich either. Overall, I think Nikita Kulikovich’s dominance in all factors of the game make him the prime candidate here.

 

Benoit Devereux Trophy

 

Awarded to the league’s top goaltender, the race for the Benoit Devereux Trophy has changed quite a bit since the earlier stages of this season. Initially, two Swedish goalies, Joakim Bruden and Isak Sjostrom had control of the race, with Bruden a few steps ahead. While they have maintained their positions as candidates for this award, another contender has emerged and makes a pretty strong case as well. Nicolas Fomba of the Yukon Rush boasts the highest save percentage among all starters in S71, and is second place in GAA and wins among the same crowd. While he does make a strong case, it’s likely that Bruden has a stronger one. He is as close as you can possibly be to Fomba in save percentage and even bests him in wins, GAA and shutouts. He leads all starters in those categories. Bruden seems like the top contender for the Benoit Devereux, but Fomba and Sjostrom aren’t out of consideration either.
 

Matt Bentz Trophy

 

What is labelled as the award for the league’s top two-way forward is actually closer to the league’s top power forward. This is due to the lack of identifiable defensive stats besides hits, especially with shots blocked being very unpredictable for forwards. What’s interesting about the candidates for this award is that as you go down the line of who has the most hits, the number of points they have goes up as the number of hits decreases. Starting at the top, Jungkok leads all forwards with 278 hits, which are accompanied by 102 points. Although he does have the least points here, over 100 points is never anything to scoff at. Moving along, we have Ray Sheilds, who I had previously noted as having an outside chance if he picked up his point totals a bit. Him and Alex Bridges find themselves in the middle, where they aren’t the highest in points or hits, but have very impressive numbers in both categories nonetheless. Bridges has the edge in points, and Shields holds the advantage in hits. At the other end of the line, Richard Penisson holds a convincing lead in points, though his number of hits is the lowest here. That isn’t to say he doesn’t have many hits, as his 230 are still near the top of the league. I think Penisson or Jungkok takes this, with the winner depending on how much you would value hits and points in comparison to each other.

 

Mitch Higgins Trophy

 

The biggest award of them all, the Mitch Higgins Trophy is given to the VHLM’s most valuable player. In the last edition, we said that Richard Penisson was the strongest contender due to him being a candidate for the Bentz, being in the lead for the Chershenko, and being close by for the other offensive trophies. Not only has he maintained all of that, but he’s also now even won those offensive trophies that he needed to catch up for at that point. Nikita Kulikovich, Joakim Bruden and Nicolas Fomba could possibly garner some attention from voters, but Penisson’s dominant season could very well be capped off with this prestigious award.

 

That’s it for this season’s VHLM Award Tracker! We saw many players maintain their dominance, while others rose up and fell down as the season progressed. Next, we will take a look at the VHL award races, so keep an eye out for that.
 

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