Login

taterswc · 06-04-2021, 06:26 AM

This year’s rookies have been looking pretty good on the ice. Now that the regular season has come to a close its time to look back on the accomplishments of this season’s rookies. These rookies all had great season and there are many more rookies that had good season that I was not able to put on this list. These rookies should be in the conversation for rookie of the year from my perspective. I am going to start by highlighting 5 rookies that had great season even if they were not the best rookies.

Greyson Cooper- Quebec City Citadelles. Starting my list out is Greyson Cooper from Quebec City. Greyson played left wing for Quebec city. Quebec city held onto 6th place had a 0 goal differential by the end of the season. Greyson played 954 min or about 16 hours of ice time for Quebec city. Greyson found himself 18 goals and 12 assists for 30 points. Greyson had 15 hits and 29 blocked shots. Greyson had 142 shots on goal and a goal for per 60 of 2.6. Greyson had a Corsi for percent of 49.9 and a Corsi for relative of 1.7

Evil Allbran- Newfoundland Berserkers. Moving on we have the Berserkers Evil Allbran. Evil played right wing for the Berserkers. The Berserkers only picked up two rookies last year so you can bet their lines were already pretty stacked. Evil was only able to play 671 min or about 11 hours on the ice over the season. Playing less ice time than most rookies Evil still found himself 12 goals and 7 assists for 19 points. Evil was able to get 19 hits and 15 shot blocks during his short time on the ice. Evil had 91 shots on goal. Evil’s goals for per 60 rating was 3 while his goals against per 60 rating was 1.6. Evil had a Corsi for percent of 58.8. I think Evil could have placed higher on this list if he had more ice time to show off what he can do.

Mars Stanton- St. Louis Scarecrows. Number 8 on my list is Mars Stanton. Mars played left defense for the Scarecrows and I was impressed. The Scarecrows finished 11th in the regular season and while the team was not playing the best Mars played his heart out. While defense usually play more ice time Mars played 1258 min or about 21 hours of ice time over the season. Mars ended the season with 7 goals and 9 assists for 16 points total. Mars had 55 hits and blocked 85 shots during the season. Impressively Mars had a positive takeaway vs. giveaway ratio with 9 more takeaways than giveaways, which is not that common even among second year players. Mars was only able to make 61 shots on goal but his corsi for percent was 40.6. His Relative corsi for percent was 3.4, so he was making positive moves for his team.

Duncan The Walrus- Maine Timber. The 7th entry on my list is Maines very own Duncan The Walrus. Maine had a hard season finishing at 9th. Meanwhile Duncan was a top earner in his class and had a real impact for his team. Duncan played right defense for Maine. Duncan played 1274 min or about 21 hours of time on the ice, which probably is not that long for a walrus. Duncan scored 8 goals and 13 assists for 21 points total. Duncan is a savage walrus with 83 hits and blocking 59 shots, probably by being a walrus. Duncan had a positive takeaway vs giveaway ratio with 5 more takeaways than giveaways. Duncan made 113 shots on goal and had a goals for per 60 of 2.8. Duncan had a goals against per 60 of 2.5. Duncan had a Corsi for percent of 47.5 and a Corsi for relative of 10.1. you read that right 10.1. Maine was a better team when they had their walrus on the ice.

Guy Fieri- Anchorage Armada. Changing it up for number 6 on this list I choose the Armada’s rookie goalie Guy Fieri. Anchorage finished the regular season in second place. Its not surprising a team that is doing well will have players that have good stats, however Guy still earned his place on this list. Guy played 50 games for Anchorage totaling 2963 min. Guy had 1273 shots against him and saved 1148 of them leaving his save percentage at 90.2 percent. Guy only let 125 pucks in the net and his average goals against was 2.53. Guy did have 2 shutout games on the season. For a rookie goal guy had a great season even if he had a lot of help from his team.

The next 5 players on this list are all top contenders for rookie of the year. I think you could rank these players in almost any order and make a case for it. I will be ranking them based on performance and overall team contribution from my perspective.

Olof Karsikko- Vancouver Whalers. Coming in at number 5 is the Whalers Olof Karsikko. Being a rookie goalie placed in the net can be hard. It can be even harder when your team is not giving you a lot of cover. Vancouver finished the season in 10th place, but Olof was a big part of keeping the team above water. Olof played 34 games for a total of 1833 min. Olof shared the net with Jon St. Ark for the season and came out better in the end. Olof was shot at 1069 times or about .6 shots per min and managed to save 983 of them only letting 86 pucks over the line. To put .6 shots per min into perspective, there were only 4 goalies that had a .6 or above shots per min against them and none of them except Olof had a 92% save percentage. Anchorage, Kelowna, Detroit, and Newfoundland all had about .4 shots per min on their goalies over the season. Olof was a huge clutch player for the Whalers last season.

Latrell McDonald- Anchorage Armada. You may be surprised to see Latrell so high up on this list. Coming in at number 4 its impossible to say he did not have a fantastic season. Latrell was the rookie scoring leader with 22 goals and 16 assists for 38 points. His season was great but so was his team. Latrell was 38 of his teams 667 points or about 6% if I round generously. Latrell Spent 917 min or about 15 hours on the ice as a left wing. Latrell mad 17 hits and blocked 25 shots. Latrell made 143 shots on goal. His goals for per 60 was 3.8 and his goals against per 60 was 1.9. His team was scoring when he was on the ice at a rate grater than once per period. Latrell had a Corsi for percent of 62 and a Corsi for percent relative of 3.8. Latrell might be my number one pick if Anchorage was not averaging 37 points per player.

Lev Lebedev- Vancouver Whalers. Number 3 on my list is none other than Lev Lebedev. Lev came in strong for the whalers with 18 goals and 17 assists for 35 points. The whalers as a team averaged 22 points but Lev was above average and was responsible for 8% of the whalers scoring. I may have said this before, but the Whalers finished 10 in the regular season, but Lev had the second most points among rookies. Lev played 1041 min or 17 hours of ice time. Not only was Lev an offensive asset but he also had 36 hits and blocked 62 shots as well. Lev sent the puck at the net 116 times with a goals for per 60 of 2.3. His Corsi for percent was 47.5 and his Corsi for percent relative was 3.1. The Whalers looked better with Lev on the ice, which is saying something because they did not look great this season.

J.J James Jamerson Angler- Maine Timber. We all have that player we are really pulling for to be the best. Mine was J.J. I consistently saw him popping up on my top 5 rookies for points, hits, blocked shots. I was ready to call him my rookie of the year by the halfway point. I wanted to but I could not. J.J falls to number 2 on my list. Maine had 396 points total. Averaging about 20 per player. J.J had 34 points, tied for third among all rookies, or 8.5% of his teams point share. If scoring wasn’t enough J.J’s 1149 min or 19 hours of ice time as a right wing puts him in the upper end of forward ice time. J.J does not stop there though. He has 80 hits, 6th among all rookies, and blocked 87 shots, tied for 3rd among all rookies. J.J took 85 shots on goal with a goals for per 60 of 2.1. J.J was a large player on a team that only managed to our score the 12th place Nevada Battle born. If he keeps this up Maine will be scary next year.

Finally, we come to my pick for rookie of the year.

NeverBrokeAgain YoungBoy- Vancouver Whalers. NeverBrokeAgain YoungBoy or NBA was absolutely amazing this season. I know there are a lot of whalers on this list, but Vancouver had some real standout players during a rough season. NBA is the standout player to me. NBA played right defense for the whalers and right away I can see this guy lived on the ice with 1347 or 22.5 hours of ice time. If that sounds like a lot that is because it is the 2nd most ice time of the rookie class. While on the ice as a defenseman NBA also scored 11 goals and 23 assists totaling 34 points, tied for 3rd among rookies. When a defenseman is only 4 points away from the rookie point leader, you know they are doing work for their team. NBA had an 8% point share on the whalers, whom I discussed earlier averaged 22 points per player. NBA had 48 hits and blocked 33 shots, but his real asset was his puck control. NBA had a positive takeaway vs giveaway ratio with 9 more takeaways than giveaways. This led to his team making a lot more plays with him on the ice. NBA took 120 shots on goal his goals for per 60 was 2.5. Meanwhile his Corsi for percent was 52.7 and his Corsi for percent relative was 11.3. if 11.3 Corsi for percent relative sounds high that is because it is not only the highest among rookies it is the second highest in the league. NBA was truly outstanding this season and I think he deserves rookie of the year.