“There’s one more award”, I hear you say. You’re right. This one gets its own post though, because we had one of our weird ones. Every so often, I notice a situation where a player wins a very divided award (let’s say, like 7 different players getting first place votes and no one appearing on more than two ballots). In those cases, I revisit with the committee to talk more, and see how people want to proceed. This year, we had a very close preliminary vote (one vote separated two finalists, and the lead appeared on only three ballots).

Without revealing who the people were, I asked a procedural question to the group—how do we feel about a player winning an award that only appeared on 3 of 9* ballots, with 13 different players getting votes? I didn’t disclose who the top vote getters were prior to the discussion, as I wanted the focus to be on the process, rather than the specific result.

The committee discussed and shared they would be interested in a revote with the field narrowed slightly. We revoted with only the top 8 players (everyone who appeared on two or more ballots) included, and there was a much clearer final result from that vote. For transparency’s sake, I will include both lists here.

Ron Bolt (Most Sportsmanlike) – Preliminary Vote
Mats Marner - 15 points (three 1st)
Eric Hudson - 14 points (two 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd)
Sven Svenson - 8 points (one 1st, one 2nd)
Keith Lee - 8 points (one 1st, one 2nd)
A Jobin - 5 points (one 1st)
Ryosuke Sato - 5 points (one 2nd, two 3rd)
Luffy Richard - 4 points (one 2nd, one 3rd)
Ben van Dijk - 4 points (one 2nd, one 3rd)
Jason Desrouleaux - 3 points (one 2nd)
Zoltan Topalo - 3 points (one 2nd)
Bradley Barkov - 1 point (one 3rd)
Ryuuji Minamino - 1 point (one 3rd)
Edward Williams - 1 point (one 3rd)

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Ron Bolt Final Vote 
Eric Hudson - 22 points (three 1st, two 2nd, one 3rd)
Ryosuke Sato - 14 points (one 1st, two 2nd, three 3rd)
Mats Marner - 12 points (one 1st, two 2nd, one 3rd))
Sven Svenson - 8 points (one 1st, one 2nd)
Keith Lee - 7 points (one 1st, two 3rd)
A Jobin - 5 points (one 1st)
Ben van Dijk - 4 points (one 2nd, one 3rd)
Luffy Richard - 0 points

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As you can see, there was some vote shifting. I want to reaffirm the only person on the committee who knew anything more than who the finalists were was me (and my ballot from 1st to 2nd vote did not change). I provided the list of the new final finalists, and, when asked, provided the justifications each person gave on their ballots for voting for each person. After a re-review and reconsideration of the information, this is what the committee decided. I think the process is a good and fair one.

*Normally there are 9 ballots. JHS failed to submit a ballot for awards and has been removed from the committee. This meant there were only 8 ballots for each of these awards. Future vote totals will be a little higher.