Miami Marauders S72 Awards

[bigAL 2,176]

Season 72 has come to an end, and it was an eventful one. After expansion brought a new team to the VHLM, GM Ricer13 and AGM bigAL worked hard to assemble a first-gen team for the first-gen franchise. 

 

At the draft, management decided to prioritize culture, leadership, and engagement ahead of individual skill, stats, or the ability to ice a winning team. Miami drafted one player above 100 TPE in the S72 VHLM Dispersal Draft (our goalie, Bacon, was at 102), despite the fact that there were triple-digit players being drafted through the 3rd round. Our eventual captain, Andre LeBastard, was our most-skilled skater at 92 TPE, but team stalwarts Wolf Stannsson, Dakota Lamb, Kosmo Kramerev, and OhSens all came on board at the draft too. Our young team was buoyed by waiver pickups like Florent Vericel, Rocket, and later, Eoin Byrne. 

 

At the start of the season, the league wrote off Miami as an expansion franchise destined for an S73 lottery pick. 

 

By the end of playoffs, we had the Regular Season Champs on the ropes as we took the Minnesota Storm to Game 7 of our Round 1 playoff series.

 

Our Miami Marauders played their hearts out during their inaugural season. The players rewarded management with a late-season standings-surge and an unforgettable 7 games in the VHLM Playoffs; it’s only fair that management reward the players for their unbelievable achievements this year. 

 

As such, Ricer13 and bigAL are happy to announce the creation of Miami Marauders team awards, along with their inaugural winners:

 

The Andre LeBastard Trophy

The LeBastard is awarded to the Marauder who displays exemplary camaraderie, leadership, and community-building on and off the ice. Our first winner embodies the traits required of a successful VHLM team captain. LeBastard was a staple in the Miami LR, and was a vocal leader of the team. He was always quick to defend a teammate from outside criticism, while doing what he could to pump the tires of his colleagues. Andre was always present with a friendly quip and a wicked joke. The first captain of the Miami Marauders has elevated the bar for all future team leaders, and has created a culture that will last long past his time in a Miami uniform. Congratulations to Andre LeBastard!

 

 

The Dakota Lamb Trophy

The dLamb is awarded to the Miami Marauder who led the team in goals at the end of the regular season. Scoring goals is proven to be the most effective way to win hockey games, and our first winner, Dakota Lamb, scored a lot of goals and won us a lot of hockey games. By the end of our 72 game season, Lamb potted 37 goals to lead the club. It didn’t get him on the VHLM top-10 goal scoring list, but it was good enough to get the goal-scoring trophy named after him. Congratulations to Dakota Lamb!

 

 

The Kosmo Kramerev Trophy

The Kosmo is awarded to the defenseman most integral to the success of the Miami Marauders. The inaugural winner, Kosmo Kramerev, led by example and was a force at both ends of the ice. Kramerev was an offensive force, scoring a team-high 106 points and 77 assists. Kramerev was a warrior, leading the team in blocked shots (142) while posting a (not as bad as it sounds) -28. This defender has blown the socks off the VHLM, and will look to build on his scoring prowess in the big leagues soon. Congratulations Kosmo Kramerev!

 

 

The Eoin Byrne Trophy

The Byrne is awarded to the most valuable player who joined the team after the VHLM Dispersal Draft. Miami secured between six and eight active players in the draft that would play out S72 with the team, but management needed to bolster the lineup with players on waivers. As an expansion team with a sometimes-lousy record, it was difficult to attract free agents to Miami. The few players that joined us all made fantastic impacts. Florent Vericel started off the season on a mission, but slowed down as the weeks dragged on. Rocket, the one-named Cher of our team, made frequent appearances on the ice and in the team facilities. But the waiver signing that made the biggest impact on the Marauders was a player who only suited up for 5 regular season games: Eoin Byrne. Byrne jumped into the league with a bit of prior sim league experience, but blew the Marauder management away with his eagerness, professionalism, and foreignness. He entertained us in the room, and became a playoff shot-blocking hero with 10 blocked shots and 9 hits in 7 playoff games. Congratulations to our favourite Argentinian, Eoin Byrne!

 

***

 

The above awards were chosen by Miami management, Ricer13 and bigAL. The below awards are all voted awards, with unique judges and purposes for each:

 

The MVM Trophy

The Most Valuable Marauder is awarded to the player deemed most valuable by the roster plays of the Miami Marauders. The players have spoken, and chosen their goaler Bacon to be the S72 MVM. On a whole, Bacon’s stats didn’t wow the media this season. He finished with a .827 SV% and a 3.68 GAA - both great improvements and career highs, but not enough to land on the Top-10 VHLM lists. What impressed his teammates, though, was Bacon’s clutch ability to not let a game slip away. In 72 regular season games, Bacon got Miami past 60 minutes 7 times. He sometimes let a greasy goal slip through in those extra frames (3 wins, 4 losses), but the team loved him for giving us the suspense of close games all season long. Congratulations Bacon!

 

The bigAL Trophy

We know it’s a bit presumptuous to name a trophy based on longevity and potential after a first-gen rookie manager, but hey guess who gets to name the trophies? The bigAL is awarded to the Marauder who best projects to have a long, successful career in the VHL/M. The winner is chosen by a panel of VHL/M managers who are familiar with the Miami LR. Like bigAL, the inaugural winner is on the fast-track to management. Our winner is a graphics whiz, who makes some of the most beautiful signatures in the M. This player is active in both the Miami LR and the VHL general discord server, and is eager and excited to be involved in everything happening in the VHL. We are proud to announce the winner of the first-ever bigAL trophy is… Dakota Lamb!

 

Graphic of the Year

The Miami Marauders Graphic of the Year is a very subjective category. This year’s winner stepped out of his comfort zone to try something new. The work was applauded by the community for being creative, informative, and outside the normal scope of VHL graphic work. Thank you to everyone who applied, and congratulations to Dakota Lamb!

https://vhlforum.com/topic/86338-d-lamb-rookie-season-infographic/ 

 

Media Spot of the Year

The Miami Marauders Media Spot of the Year is also a very subjective category. This year’s winner poured his heart and soul into this piece of writing. He overcame a language barrier to create a whopping 2100 words intended to pump the tires of his teammates ahead of the VHLM playoffs and VHL draft. This media spot took days to perfect, but perfect it is. Thank you to everyone who applied, and congratulations to OhSens!

https://vhlforum.com/topic/86400-miami-marauders-late-playoff-preview/

 

Finally, a big thank you goes out to all the Miami Marauders who came along for the first season. We couldn’t have a VHLM franchise without VHLM players, so thank you.

 

out,

 

bigAL, AGM
Ricer13, GM

 

Players mentioned:
@Ricer13@Andre LeBastard@dlamb@Mongoose87@Bacon@osens@ahockeyguy@LatinViking@dart @Rocket

[osens 297]

What a year it has been! Thank you, for this great season. Managment has been perfect and we wouldn't be where we are without you, big al!

[Andre LeBastard 112]

I'd like to say how much of an honour it was to lead this fantastic bunch of guys. Both management and players have been outstanding!

 

Thank you all!

Edited July 13, 2020 by Andre LeBastard

[Mongoose87 384]

A season I'll never forget.

[ahockeyguy 110]

Great stuff guys. I will always recommend Miami as long as you guys are heading it up. Great year!

[bigAL 2,176]

Thanks for all the love team! # @Ricer13GMOTY

 

*claiming for doubles week July 19*

[bigAL 2,176]

Last claim for this one!