A LOOK AT THE TWHL AWARDS Some Wolves players may see hardware at banquet Billionaire Mark Burgess reporting from Los Angeles. With a little time on our hands, we elected to see what happened as far as the season went and take a look at the possible nominees for the awards ceremony? I narrow the field to my three likely finalists, and the player in bold is the one I foresee as the winner. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Hart Trophy (Most Outstanding Player) The best player in the league is the easiest way to put this award. And with many other names that could be bandied about here, Havana sophmore Mike Ribeiro I believe is the clear cut favorite. He broke the record for most points in a season by anyone, and smashed the old most points by a LW record by an incredible 19. Kudos to his linemate Dan Boyle, but Ribeiro's season leaves me far more awestruck than does Boyle. The only other choices here would be Vancouver's Scott Gomez(the only other 100 point player) Havana's Jaromir Jagr(the only other 50 goal scorer) or Calcutta's Mike York and New York's Chris Taylor(both a step behind the first two in my opinion). Top 3: Mike Ribeiro HAV Dan Boyle HAV Scott Gomez VAN PLAYER TEAM GP G A PTS +/- PP SH GW GT S PCT Mike Ribeiro HAVANA 80 57 71 128 47 20 0 9 0 316 18.0 Dan Boyle HAVANA 80 61 63 124 48 33 4 5 1 358 17.0 Scott Gomez VANCOUVER 80 26 77 103 16 16 1 1 0 236 11.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Lester Pearson Trophy (Most Valuable Player to a Team) Sometimes confused with the Hart, this goes to the player most important to his team. There are afew solid candidates floating out there, with Calcutta's press team alreadymaking mention of one of the early favorites, Calcutta's own Mike York. Add in Vancouver's Scott Gomez, Rio's Cam Severson and Melbourne's Michal Handzus and I believe you have the makings of what could be a very close 4 way race. I want to push my support behind York as Calcutta can use all the help they can get, but with them not making the playoffs, York has one strike against him. The second issue with york is the fact that he only outscored the 2nd place scorer on his team by 18 points, which pales in comparison to the other 3 nominees who are at 25 plus. The issue of players he plays with though is a bonus to him. I am somewhat torn on the outcome of this vote. So i will list the Top 4 and my projected winner in bold. Top 4: Scott Gomez VAN Mike York CAL Cam Severson RIO Michal Handzus MEL P # Player GP G A PTS +/- PP SH GW GT S PIM PCT Led team in scoring by pts. F 27 Scott Gomez 80 26 77 103 16 16 1 1 0 236 57 11.0 (28)VAN F 16 Mike York 80 49 43 92 -18 23 3 0 1 263 58 18.6 (16)CAL F 74 Cam Severson 80 37 51 88 11 19 1 2 1 211 50 17.5 (29)RIO F 43 Michal Handzus 80 47 48 95 18 20 5 4 0 310 196 15.2 (25)MEL ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Lady Byng Trophy (Sportsmanship combined with Superior Play) The nice Guy award. sometimes referred to as the pussy award. The usual suspects, a defensemen or two who played 80 games and got 0 minutes are not popping out at me this season. I havenever much liked voting for a defenseman in this award at all personally, as the truly skilled blueliners need to have some grit to their game. Outside of the Selke this may be th emost subjective award in the list, so I will throw a bunch of names out there, using 30 PIMS as the minimum cut off, and then list my choice of Top 3 as well as my projected(or at least HOMER point of view) winner out there. P # Player GP G A PTS +/- PP SH GW GT S PIM PCT F 16 Marcel Dionne 77 33 42 75 0 21 1 2 1 236 22 14.0 LOS F 21 Martin Erat 80 42 50 92 47 14 3 3 1 255 30 16.5 TAI F 18 Richard Park 80 36 21 57 -8 11 0 3 1 176 29 20.5 RIO F 51 Kamil Piros 80 25 36 61 6 9 0 2 0 202 29 12.4 BER F 55 Sergei Gonchar 80 46 32 78 -2 18 1 2 1 285 25 16.1 SIN D 77 Tyler Wright 80 12 37 49 -8 1 0 1 0 139 5 8.6 CAL D 73 Rostislav Klesla 80 18 57 75 37 3 0 3 0 100 22 18.0 HAV I personally discount the d-men as mentioned earlier so here we go: Top 3: Marcel Dionne LOS Martin Erat TAI Kamil Piros BER ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Norris Trophy (Top Defenseman) The best defenseman in the game. At both ends of the rink. His team's horse on the blueline, etc.. etc... Some solid choices this season, but all have some pitfalls as well. After careful deliberation, factoring in the strength of the team around them, their importance to their team, I manager to whittle it down to 3. I grant everyone there is numerous other possible choices here, but it's my thoughts here, so top 3 are in my opinion, in reverse order from the point leaders among defensemen, the 4th , 3rd and 2nd overall leadign scoring defensemen. Top 3: Niklas Kronwall PRA Bret Hedican TOK Ron Hainsey LOS PLAYER TEAM GP G A PTS +/- PP SH GW GT S PCT Niklas Kronwall PRAGUE 80 17 55 72 0 2 0 1 0 113 15.0 Bret Hedican TOKYO 74 25 47 72 25 1 0 4 0 121 20.7 Ron Hainsey L A 78 14 60 74 23 1 0 4 1 93 15.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Calder Trophy (Top Rookie) Top rookie in the league. The best of the new guys, A few solid choices here again, and what Berlin's MacDonald might have done with a full season. There are the trio of forwards and then the stud blueliner. Who gets your vote? P # Player GP G A PTS +/- PP SH GW GT S PIM PCT F 10 Mike CAMMALLERI 80 40 36 76 -9 12 0 5 2 260 108 15.4 CAL F 15 Dominic MOORE 80 44 36 80 -36 25 3 6 0 263 49 16.7 PRA D 7 Jay HARRISON 80 14 45 59 -15 2 3 1 1 73 196 19.2 ROM F 15 Tuomas PIHLMAN 80 35 42 77 -14 22 0 3 0 254 87 13.8 LON 3 of the 4 come from the Borg division, so I guess maybe somethign good does come out of that division. I give the LW an edge on the 2 centers and a -9 in Calcutta is impressive. Enough to give him an edge over the rest? Or does the blueliner skate through all the forwards and leave with the prize? Hell, goalie Gerber from Cairo may garner enough votes to win as well Top 3: Mike Cammalleri CAL Dominic Moore PRA Jay Harrison ROM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Vezina Trophy (Top Goaltender) Goaltender Team GP MIN GA SA PCT W L T G.A.A. Miikka Kiprusoff TAIPEI 39 2350 119 1109 .893 30 7 2 3.04 J.S. Giguere MOSCOW 47 2835 156 1449 .892 28 16 3 3.30 Jamie Storr TORONTO 37 2235 125 1121 .888 22 12 3 3.36 Kipper has the edge in numbers but he has the best team in front of him. GM Easton always talks about how much better hsi D is than everyone else's so we knock Kipper down 2 spots. A quick glance at the difference between Storr and Toronto's other goalies and Giguere and Moscow's other goalies makes this an easy pick for me. Top 3: Jamie Storr TOR JS Giguere MOS M. Kiprusoff TAI ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Selke Trophy (Best Defensive Forward) Most subjective award on the list, always a close vote as ther eis usually a gazillion or so people who get votes in the balloting. Almost everyone likes to use a different criteria to base their votes on. Plus minus, SH goals, plus/minus is accordance with teamates, etc... They all serve a purpose. So I looked at a bunch and picked three of them. I am still more impressed with the -1(on SAN's top line) and the +1(on PRA) than I am with the league leadig 5 SHG by Handzus. P # Player GP G A PTS +/- PP SH GW GT S PIM PCT F 17 Nikita Alexeev 80 23 51 74 -1 11 2 1 0 202 114 11.4 F 33 Henrik Sedin 80 21 39 60 1 9 0 2 0 215 106 9.8 F 43 Michal Handzus 80 47 48 95 18 20 5 4 0 310 196 15.2 Top 3: Nikita Alexeev SAN Henrik Sedin PRA Michal Handzus MEL ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Sam Pollock Trophy (Top GM) Another one that has a wide criteria to base votes on. Best record, most active, biggest breakthrough, etc.. HAV: took another major step forward but the long losing seasons are still there in my memory. TAI:Winning the league after winning the championship is impressive, but award winning? BER: Interesting choice, they did finish seocnd ahead of both STO and LON, but behind a mostly AWOL Moscow team. Lots of AWOL teams did better than expected, does that add to TAI's chacnes, or not? My top 3: Paul Hayward BER David Easton TAI Nathan Daniel HAV ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Jack Adams Award (Top Coach) Hmm, lots of teams overperformed this season in my estimation. unfortunately not a lot of them ahd very active gm's. But in theory they all had coaches I guess. So two of them, and then kudos to HAV for another giant step forward. My top 3: CAPE TOWN Coach : Bishop Desmond Tutu MOSCOW Coach : Grigory Rasputin HAVANA Coach : Petr Mika ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following trophies are awarded based on REGULAR Season-ending stats: - The Commissioner’s Cup (1st Place Team) Taipei Typhoons - Art Ross Trophy (Player With Most Points) Mike Ribeiro HAV - Mad Max Award (Team With Best Regular Season Road Record) Havana United - William Jennings Trophy (Lowest Goal Against Average – Min. 25 Games) Miikka Kiprusoff TAI - Bernie Parent Gold Glove (Best Save % – Min. 25 Games) Miikka Kiprusoff TAI - Tim Horton Cup (Most Shut-outs) Jamie Storr TORONTO Tomas Vokoun ROME - Bob Gainey Trophy (Best Plus/Minus) Jim Dowd TORONTO - Jari Kurri Award (Most Goals) Dan Boyle HAVANA - Paul Coffey Cup (Most Goals By A Defenseman) Bret Hedican TOKYO - Billy Taylor Honour Roll (Most Assists) Scott Gomez VANCOUVER - Bruce Willis “Die Hard” Statue (Team With Best Penalty Killing %) Hong Kong Pythons - Aurel Joliat Citation (Most Game Winning Goals) Chris Drury CAPE TOWN - Bobby LaLonde Medal (Most SHORT-Handed Goals) Michal Handzus MELBOURNE - Homer Simpson Beer Mug (Team With Best Regular Season Home Record) Taipei Typhoons - Tide Laundry Soap Box (Team With Most Ties during Regular Season) Berlin Bears - Ted Lindsay Ribbon (Most Game Tying Goals) Alexei Kovalev LONDON - Val Fonteyne Medallion (Team With Least PIM’s) Hong Kong Pythons - Dave Shultz Hammer (Team With Most PIM’s) London Legacy - Howie Morenz Memorial Award (Team With The Best Power-Play %) Havana United - Charlie Simmer Gold Stick (Most Power-Play Goals) Dan Boyle HAVANA - Cy Denneny Shot Clock (Most Shot on Goal) Dan Boyle HAVANA - Tiger Williams Trophy (Player With Most PIM’s) Brendan Shanahan HONG KONG - Tony Tanti Ashtray (Most 1st Goals) Marcel Dionne L A - The Butler’s Trophy (23rd Place Team) Montreal Molson Canadians -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.18/586 - Release Date: 12/13/2006