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baz · 04-16-2024, 01:33 PM

Hello everyone! I am back with more media and I am going to be ranking the SHL MVPs seasons just going in reverse order and I will be including winners of the Ron Mexico Trophy and winners of the Sarmad Khan Trophy to include who I think had the better season of the two! For this first article I will be doing the last 10 seasons aka Season 75 to 66! Also if this is bad I blame the fact that I do not know much about Hockey! I am a football person lol. I will be looking to continue this series and do all MVPs so I will try to release maybe one article like once a week, so if you hate these articles uhhh idk.

In the time of Season 66-75, we have seen fourteen different MVPs between the two awards with all but two being registered as Centers in the index. The lone two as left wingers are Evil AllBran in S71 and Konstantin Selich in S74.

So when looking at these MVP seasons I took several things into consideration, I will list everything that went into my sheet to compare these guys!

Goals
Assists
Points
+/-
Power Play Goals
Short Handed Goals
Giveaways
Takeaways
Blocks
Hits

Just because they are designed to be offensive, I felt I could not skip out on the Blocks and Hits, also I did want to include Game Winning Goals but that was not recorded in the past seasons it seems somewhere in the 60s.

Honestly I think this will be easier to go from who I think the worst in this period to the best so lets get right into that.

14th Place:

My lowest ranked MVP season of this first batch is Lev Lebedev in Season 66 playing for the Manhattan Rage.
Lev Lebedev Statline: 43 G, 55 A, 98 Points, 17 +/-, 12 PPG, 0 SHG, 70 GAs, 33 TAs, 36 Blocks, 63 Hits

While Lebedev did have an excellent year with a big 98 points and should not be knocked for that this is the lowest of any of the MVPs in this time period and has the worst plus minus of any MVP in this period. Lebedev is also the only MVP who did not score a goal in a short handed offense which is hard to do but to be the only one not to do it made Lev the odd one out. Lev was also one of the worst on the flipside on the defensive side with last place in Takeaways, bottom four in blocks and bottom three in hits. Unfortunately Lebedev just did not excel as much as you would think would correlate with a MVP season when compared to the rest. Regardless Lebedev helped the Rage get to second in their division and was a solid scoring source for them being 7th in goals during S66.

13th Place:

Moving onto thirteenth place it is Luukas Lilja who played for the Panthers in S66 and had a very good year that imo is pretty comparable to our twelfth place MVP. Lilja helped lead the Panthers to 3rd place in the regular season and put up an astounding season with a total of 107 points!

Luukas Lilja Statline: 49 G, 58 A, 107 Points, 31 +/-, 16 PPG, 3 SHG, 46 GAs, 64 TAs, 31 Blocks, 67 Hits

Luukas finds themself in dead last in only one category which is Blocks but finds themself in first for takeaways which I feel is a very good trade off. Luukas falls below the average goals and assists a season by MVPs during these seasons which I think unfortunately knocks them down quite a bit. Luukas actually has an impressive 3 short handed goals but that is still below the average. I will say what I really like about Lilja’s season is that they limited turning it over with only 46 giveaways and then getting 64 takeaways to respark the offense. Lilja is one of the only two MVPs who had more Takeaways than giveaways which is nothing to sneer at. I think Lilja could potentially be flipped with my 12th placer but I just feel this is right.

12th Place:

Moving onto twelfth place is the S67 MVP, Dwayne Gretzky, who won both awards in their season but I feel their season falls just better of thirteenth place and I feel as if these two seasons are very close. Gretzky played for the Montreal Patriotes who helped lead to round 3 of the playoffs but I am focusing on the regular season!

Dwayne Gretzky Statline: 39 G, 69 A, 108 Points, 24 +/- , 14 PPG, 4 SHG, 46 GAs, 49 TAs, 63 Blocks, 72 Hits

Gretzky has a very good statline but I think finding himself on the low end of total points and last place in goals knocks him down quite a bit. However I think that his staline is very close to Lilja’s with only a point difference. Where Gretzky excelled compared to Lilja was Assists and Lilja then excelled in Goals so it is a matter of other stats for me. While I do love that Lilja had the positive TA/GA, the only other player to do that was Gretzky who had 63 blocks which is amazing as that puts Gretzky over the average. Overall like I said both seasons are very comparable but I am confident with thirteenth and twelfth being the areas they belong in for now.

11th Place:

Now I think we do a decent jump in MVP seasons as both S66 and S67 MVPs find themselves on the bottom, we jump up to S69 for the sole MVP in that season being Konstantin Selich playing for Buffalo. This is actually Selich’s first MVP season and the worse of the two so he can still find himself higher on the list!

Konstantin Selich Statline: 52 G, 64 A, 116 Points, 42 +/-, 24 PPG, 1 SHG, 82 GAs, 54 TAs, 49 Blocks, 56 Hits

Selich finds himself below average in most categories but the categories that he is above in are Power Play Goals, +/-, Blocks and Takeaways. Now I am not one to want to really reward people for Power Play Goals as I do believe it is just a scenario that you are more likely to score and should score, which is why I really do value short handed goals as it is impressive to be able to do score when you are down a person on the ice. However this isn’t the only knack on Selich’s S69 MVP season as he finds himself just below average in goals and assists making his team impact seem almost minimal compared to the guys above him as everyone from this point on is above average in one of the two categories. Selich’s first MVP season falls just short of top 10 in the past 10 seasons unfortunately.

Now lets get into my top 10 and this is where it gets a bit difficult imo as now every player has damn good reason to be higher on this list but only one can be on top!

10th Place:

Unfortunately this one is a bit tough and I am going to go with one of the MVP winners in season 68 being Markus “The Tater” Jager of the New England Wolfpack, this is another close one as I feel that 10 and 9 could be interchangeable.

Markus “The Tater” Jager Statline: 61 G, 49 A, 110 Points, 21 (+/-), 13 PPG, 4 SHG, 73 GAs, 52 TAs, 49 Blocks, 75 Hits

Now if I were to be ranking these guys based on names this would be the clear winner for me but unfortunately that is not what I am doing right now! 61 Goals is very impressive finding themself in 2nd in S68 there and with the second highest shooting percentage, Jager was lights out on the ice and was completely dominating. One thing I do love about Jager is that a large majority of his goals came when the team was even strength with only 13 Power Play Goals. Unfortunately, Jager had a large amount of giveaways which I think lands them here at 10th over the 9th place person as our 9th placer was much more efficient in ensuring that they did not lose the puck. Overall, Jager’s 4 Short Handed Goals is very impressive and appears to have been solid on defense being just above average in takeaways and blocks. If you take away power play goals, Jager is 2nd overall in goals among the MVPs which is a great place to be in my opinion.

9th Place:

Now in ninth place we actually have the man who shared MVP with Jager. It is S68’s Max Manning of the Seattle Argonauts! Max had a wonderful season and actually boasts some good numbers but falls just short of 8th place.

Max Manning Statline: 66 G, 47 A, 113 Points, 46 +/-, 26 PPG, 3 SHG, 43 GAs, 43 TAs, 33 Blocks, 73 Hits

Max Manning boasts the most goals of any of the MVPs, so you may be wondering baz, you are a fucking mad man why is Max here. Well what Max lacks compared to those above him in this list is that they have a good balance of goals and assists to some degree. Everyone above Max has at least 15 more assists from him and there are only two people left that are not above average in goals. One of them I would say is in 8th place and was very close to being ninth in my opinion but I went back and forth on this for a bit. Where I think Manning falls short compared to the other is that if you take away power play goals which Manning had 26 of he finds himself at 6th in Goals. Yes I definitely should not be taking away these power play goals and taking it into factor but I easily see it as more impressive when players are able to score when they are at a disadvantage or at even strength. One thing that I will say is very impressive about Manning was he let up the least giveaways of the MVPs but then that was counteracted with being third to last in both takeaways and blocks.

8th Place:

When I say Max Manning fell just short I truly mean it because when looking at this 8th placer its really hard to justify why Max fell but I really did like the balance of game and that this player in 8th did not profit as much from power play goals but yeah baz logic or something who knows! Anyway in 8th place we have a two time MVP, Adam Prpich now what season though? Season 74!

Adam Prpich S74 Statline: 54 G, 67 A, 121 Points, 40 +/-, 9 PPG, 6 SHG, 80 GAs, 64 TAs, 37 Blocks, 73 Hits

Prpich put up a great season and now let me simply explain why he is above Manning real quick, if you take away Power Play Goals like I did in previous examples, Prpich has more goals than Manning granted I am not hockey person so this is not foolproof so uh caution when using this equation it is known to cause a chemical reaction called controversy or something. Anyways regardless, Prpich was one of the few MVPs to have 6 shorthanded goals which is no easy feat but one knack about Prpich is I do not think he was even the best player in his season which goes to his MVP partner who won the Sarmad Khan but I do want to say I enjoy that multiple people can get MVP when several put up numbers like this! Anyways what knocks this season of Prpich down is that he had 80 giveaways which lands him at the third most while he did have 64 takeaways which was first he ended up with 16 more giveaways which I believe landed him around the middle of the pack. Prpich helped elevate the Panthers to the top half of the league but unfortunately his performance was not enough.

Now lets do a quick review of placements!

14th Place: Lev Lebedev (S66)
13th Place: Luukas Lilja (S66)
12th Place: Dwayne Gretzky (S67)
11th Place: Konstantin Selich (S69)
10th Place: Markus “The Tater” Jager (S68)
9th Place: Max Manning (S68)
8th Place: Adam Prpich (S74)

7th Place:

Now lets jump into our top half where I get really crazy. In 7th place we have one of our two season 71 MVPs and this one comes from the Philadelphia Forge! Evil AllBran.

Evil AllBran Statline: 60 G, 62 A, 122 Points, 25 +/-, 16 PPG, 4 SHG, 61 GAs, 46 TAs, 41 Blocks, 96 Hits

Evil AllBran came in with a statline that appeared to be very average and where you want to be as an MVP frontrunner and now that we are in the top half this is not the kind of statline you want to have anymore. AllBran found themselves in the bottom two of several categories such as Points, +/-. PPG, SHG, Takeaways and Blocks. Evil AllBran was a force to be reckoned with on the offense but could not continue that pressure in the defense that some other MVPs saw success in falling below average in both takeaways and blocks among all MVPs. AllBran helped lead the Forge to 4th place in the regular season and ended up taking the most shots in the league with 336, someone to truly be feared as whenever AllBran had the puck they appeared ready to let it loose. AllBran has an impressive statline and as I continue to go through every year I fully expect him to remain around the middle ground but who knows I could be wrong! Also that was one of our two left wings! Both made the top half in this piece.

6th Place:

Next up in 6th place it appears we are stuck in season 71 and Lias is skating up to me on the ice saying they are the best to ever do it… Well shit how do I tell my current J GM they are 6th… Well maybe they don’t read this far and I don’t get benched. Anyways, yes! Lias is our 6th place MVP during this time period.

Lias Ekholm-Gunnarsson Statline: 60 G, 69 A, 129 Points, 52 +/-, 23 PPG, 4 SHG, 65 GAs, 38 TAs, 42 Blocks, 78 Hits

Now I mean this in the nicest way possible but one reason Lias is here is because their name is so difficult to spell, when typing Ekholm I have to recheck the name 3 times to make sure its not Elkhom, Eklohm or something else it was bad. Anyways into the real reasons we see Lias here, they were not too successful when keeping the puck away from the opponents often found handing it to them sometimes on a silver platter that was encrusted with bronze. Of the remaining MVPs Lias had the most giveaways if you remove all of their takeaways as Lias seemed to struggle on the defensive side. Lias did however help lead the Winnipeg Aurora to 1st in the regular season with a very impressive season being both first place in points and goals but that was not enough as of the remaining group Lias is only 5th in points which is very crazy to think about that 129 points is only 5th among a group of 6 MVPs in recent seasons. Nonetheless, Lias had a wonderful season and I expect them to be very much in the top 20 area when I finish doing all of the MVPs!

5th Place:

Top five here we go! Lets move up northeast to our friends in New England and at their season 72 MVP, Ivan Lacksamus who also won in season 73 making him the highest two time MVP in this list with this being his first appearance on the list.

Ivan Lacksamus S74 Statline: 55 G, 76 A, 131 Points, 33 +/-, 24 PPG, 4 SHG, 92 GAs, 56 TAs, 67 Blocks, 82 Hits

Now you all may look at this and you are asking yourself, “Baz why is Lacksamus in Season 72 ahead of Lias in Season 71”, well to that I say because I am writing this article but in all seriousness despite Lacksamus’s excess of turnovers in this season he had a great defensive year on top of that with the most blocks of any of the MVPs and was above average in takeaways which Lias found themselves below it seemed. All that aside lets talk about why Lacksamus is below the ones above him. Well if you direct your attention to the column labeled giveaways. There is a large red number… red is bad and I can not continue to let this man get away with it! In all seriousness though, Ivan is 3rd in points of the remaining group and is 4th in goals. He just did not have the offensive explosion as the others did and that may be because of his ability to not hold onto the puck but regardless he had several Blocks being the best MVP at blocking and then scored 4 SHG which is above the average so is a job well done.

4th Place:

Now lets get rid of our first two time MVP which means Kirkby is safe from getting fourth place! Leaves us with Lacksamus in S73, Selich in S74 and Prpich in S75. Unfortunately Selich by a vote of baz’s sole vote you have been eliminated bring me your torch.

Konstantin Selich S74 Statline: 47 G, 80 A, 127 Points, 62 +/-, 18 PPG, 6 SHG, 62 GAs, 58 TAs, 57 Blocks, 157 Hits

Unfortunately Selich has to be knocked out before the top three but let me tell you I love this statline so much, like 80 assists is actually crazy and shows how powerful that Buffalo front was with an additional 47 goals on top of that, Selich was truly something special in S74. However the lack of goals by Selich knocks him down a bit as he is 4th in points among the last four and can no longer be protected by his wild 80 assist season as everyone above him has 16 more goals than him at the very least. I do want to say Selich did make goals when it mattered with 6 shorthanded goals, with only one other player in the top four able to accomplish that. Selich had a good combo of giveaways to takeaways making him almost even in turning it over which isn’t a good thing but could have been MUCH worse! I do want to say though Selich had 157 hits which definitely broke the average there haha with an average of 81 with the closest person having 96 so it was kind of funny to look at regardless lol. All said and done this is a very good statline and Selich will be above the top 20 MVPs I believe once I finish.

3rd Place:

Now into our top 3, all of the remaining players have at least 130 points, 63 goals and 66 assists but unfortunately one of the remaining three is at the minimum in two of these categories and that is our most recent MVP Adam Prpich!

Adam Prpich S75 Statline: 64 G, 66 A, 130 Points, 38 +/-, 12 PPG, 3 SHG, 59 GAs, 58 TAs, 32 Blocks, 71 Hits

Prpich had a very good season but I think where Prpich fell short is not enough success in Power Play time and yes I have talked about how I hate power play goals but both of the other remaining individuals see a points inflation as they were able to accomplish more in power plays and had higher +/- for being in better situations when down a person or when even, where as Adam was below average in that category. Adam was also the only individual left for a while who was below average in short handed goals, the most recent person below average in that category was Max Manning who was 8th place so this is a sizeable difference as Prpich succeeded in a lot of other categories. Prpich also had the least blocks of the remaining individuals and was within 1 of the others in takeaways showing that he may not have been as effective on the defensive as he had maybe wanted to be allowing the others to push ahead. Regardless, Prpich in Season 75 had a very good campaign and I think was very worthy of being in this top 3 and if we do take away power play goals he was the most efficient but we could also see this as a lack of achievement in power play like I said earlier.

Final 2:

Now lets get into the top 2, I am just going to combine this reasoning into one paragraph, Red Kirkby and Ivan Lacksamus are our final two MVPs, Kirkby played for the Forge in S70 and Lacksamus in S73 with the Wolfpack. In first place is…

Ivan Lacksamus.

Ivan Lacksamus Statline: 65 G, 77 A, 142 Points, 57 +/-, 22 PPG, 6 SHG, 72 GAs, 58 TAs, 66 Blocks, 76 Hits
Red Kirkby Statline: 63 G, 69 A, 132 Points, 62 +/-, 23 PPG, 5 SHG, 70 GAs, 57 TAs, 57 Blocks, 96 Hits

Now Lacksamus and Kirkby both had very good seasons but Lacksamus edges out ahead for several reasons from what I can see. If we want to look at the obvious, Lacksamus scored more points, assists and goals making him the better offensive player. As well as having one more short handed goal over Kirkby making him more vital to the teams success. Then let's turn to look at the defensive side where they were pretty close to even in Giveaways and Takeaways but where they differ is Blocks and Hits. Lacksamus lead in Blocks and Kirkby lead in Hits. Which I feel makes it so that we can call it a push that both were very skilled on the defensive side so we can focus on that offensive side where Lacksamus was much better. I think Lacksamus has the possibility to be #1 without looking at any MVP campaigns past this point which I do plan to do but for now he remains at the top!

Now an overview of placements!

14th Place: Lev Lebedev (S66)
13th Place: Luukas Lilja (S66)
12th Place: Dwayne Gretzky (S67)
11th Place: Konstantin Selich (S69)
10th Place: Markus “The Tater” Jager (S68)
9th Place: Max Manning (S68)
8th Place: Adam Prpich (S74)
7th Place: Evil AllBran (S71)
6th Place: Lias Ekholm-Gunnarsson (S71)
5th Place Ivan Lacksamus (S72)
4th Place: Konstantin Selich (S74)
3rd Place: Adam Prpich (S75)
2nd Place: Red Kirkby (S70)
1st Place: Ivan Lacksamus (S73)

Now once again I am not great at this hockey thing but I will be continuing this series and ranking all MVPs so lets go! Thank you for reading if u reach this point <3.

Totally didnt forget photo of stats

[Image: Screenshot_2024-04-16_at_1.33.41_PM.png?...height=432]