08-12-2024, 02:43 PM(This post was last modified: 08-12-2024, 02:43 PM by bluesfan55.)
This second deep dive is one where I get to talk about one of my own players (boooo), in what I deem to be the one of the more controversial MVP races in SMJHL history. It's S53, and the Detroit Falcons are running the league. The Anchorage Armada are not. Yet one of those teams had a player walk away with the MVP. Let's revisit the Williams-van der Heijden MVP race in S53, and whether or not the SMJHL Awards Committee truly made the right decision.
Let's start with this: I'm going to attempt to be as impartial as I can in this. After all, it is something I'm involved in, and I don't want to pump my own tires. Now, let's look at the Ideen Fallah candidates for the S53 SMJHL season.
Mitchell van der Heijden (me), C,
Season Stats: 26 G, 26 A, 52 PTS, +12, 24 PIMs, 109 H, 27 SB, 38 GA, 14 TA in 50 GP
Candidate Analysis: van der Heijden finished the season second in league scoring on an Armada team that finished third in the league. What made his numbers stand out were that the team's second-highest scorer, Chris de Siren, had 38 points - he was THE main guy on a team that didn't really have a main man outside of him. The Armada were a generally low-scoring team that only had 6 players score double digit goals - and van der Heijden's 26 were both 7 more than Braden Lowrie, whose 19 were second on the team, and good enough for second in the league. van der Heijden also led his team in hits with 109 (fifth in the league) and performed well defensively (he , being nominated for the Brandon Holmes Trophy for top defensive forward. The season prior, van der Heijden scored 53 points, good for t-5th in the league and second on his team behind Daniel Bischoff.
Edward Williams (Aephino), C,
Season Stats: 30 G, 34 A, 64 PTS, +28, 95 PIMs, 194 H, 5 SB, 33 GA, 11 TA in 50 GP
Candidate Analysis: Quite simply one of the greatest seasons in SMJHL history from a pure scoring perspective. Williams cleared van der Heijden for top scorer by 12 points, leading the league in goals and assists. He shot at a ridiculous 18.87% clip, and finished second in the SMJHL in hits (first for forwards) behind known goon Luc-Pierre Lespineau-Lebrand. Williams led the league in PIMs and power-play goals as well. The Falcons team he played on was stacked - while he led the Falcons in scoring by 14 points over Kaarlo Kekkonen, the entire team was blitzing the league. Names like Cal Labovitch, Reid Sutherland, and Burlok Sulfurgold were on that team, but none of them were as good as Williams that year. Naturally, they would win the cup in dominant fashion that year, and Williams played a huge role in their regular season success. This was his second SMJHL season, and he was coming off of winning the Anrikkanen the year prior, having tied for the lead for rookies in scoring with 32 points.
Guy O'Shea (JSS31), RD,
Season Stats: 10 G, 26 A, 36 PTS, +44, 44 PIMs, 17 H, 45 SB, 18 GA, 27 GA in 50 GP
Candidate Analysis: The best defenseman in the league by far. Bryce Turner scored more points, but he more of a pure OFD. O'Shea shut people down and still put up 36 points. He lead the league in plus-minus, and amongst defensemen, he was first in assists (26, tied with Alex Petrenko), 3rd in goals, and second in points. What made O'Shea so good that year was his even-strength production - all of his goals and all but 9 of his points came at 5 on 5. He led his team in takeaways among defensemen (and with Magnus Liljestrom, Joseph Fantobens, and Jack Kanoff on his team, that's a huge feat) and while he didn't rack up a lot of hits or blocks, he was a defensive menace. But the race wasn't really about him - he was nominated for the Agante and lost to Alex Petrenko, which was a robbery in my opinion, but the MVP was going to be between van der Heijden and Williams.
Who won? Well, it was me. I'm still kind of surprised I did win that award. Williams was the best player in the league that year - borderline unstoppable at his best. But the Falcons were also a juggernaut, with the best roster in the league. They had 4 players, including Williams, crack 40 points during a 50 game, low-scoring SMJHL season. Anchorage only had 1 - me. Both of us were deserving of that award, in my opinion. But what it ultimately came down to, and how I believe the committee probably voted that year, was who was most valuable to their team. Detroit was a juggernaut that probably would've won without Williams, although they would definitely have been worse. Anchorage was van der Heijden or bust (and decent goaltending). No one else had the impact on that team that he did. If we're looking at it from that angle, I definitely deserved to win. If we're looking at it based off of pure stats, Williams was better, and it's not close. Even going off of advanced stats, it's close. Williams' SF/60, SA/60, GF/60, GA/60, and PDO were all better - but van der Heijden's relative Corsi and Fenwick scores were higher. Ultimately, as mentioned, the awards committee chose van der Heijden. Detroit had every right to be angry on Williams' behalf - the next time a player would score over 64 points in a SMJHL season was in S57, when Zdenko Beranek scored 72 points for the Colorado Raptors. It was a scoring season which didn't happen very often in the SMJHL those days. But they had spoken, and they deemed van der Heijden was more valuable to his team and thus more worthy of the award. Both players would go on to have great SHL careers - van der Heijden won a MVP and is in the Hall of Fame, while Williams scored 754 points in his SHL career, broke the 2K TPE mark, and won the Jesster, the Dar, and was a crucial cog in the Texas Renegades' S60s glory era (and probably should be a hall of famer - but that's another story). But one got the Fallah, and the other got the Lindsay.
1075 words
ty to @High Stick King @EvilAllBran and @Ragnar for the sigs
still wish i had that Ideen Fallah on my resume, but it's more in line with how the current awards committee looks at MVP. hard to say if it was fully justified then, but it certainly tracks now
bluesfan55
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