This is a bold prediction? There are several members of the S53 class joining the league for the first time and I’d be shocked if one of them doesn’t win the Jesster. The players in the S54 draft class just don’t have the TPE to be high in the lineup that many of the S53 members do. Let’s take a look at the front runners who will get a lot of icetime:

Steve Harrington will likely take a spot on Buffalo’s second line and with Buffalo’s depth, he should rack up the points especially assists with his 17 passing rating playing with either Bobby Sharp or Matt Kholin, both top players in the league.

Ethan Duncan starts on Baltimore’s second line, but is very likely to move to the top line during the season as he passes an inactive Nickolas Klaus in TPE and stamina. The only question is how well will he put up points and how much does the awards committee value players that have an all-round game rather than just points like the next player.

A week ago, I would have said Rocco Berni was a shoe-in for should be the Monarchs’ between Collin Gibbles and Mike Mayfield. Now after the Mayfield acquisition and her increasing faceoffs to 13, I’m fairly certain she is moving to center and will knock Berni back to the second line.

A couple of weeks ago I probably would have said Jimmy Wagner would not be a front runner, but after a significant change to the team makeup, he debuts as a highly physical and speedy winger who will have two 1000+ TPE players to play with on what I’m guessing will be the second line and plenty of special teams work.

Honorable mentions:
Ambacas Cuddles is Tampa’s top defenseman in TPE so he will eat a lot of minutes and make an impact immediately. However, this is Tampa and their top player had 29 points at forward and they are in a similar situation this season and awards tend to not favor defense.

Valentin Kalashnikov has an outside shot starting on Baltimore’s top pairing, but his build is very defensive and again awards committees tend to overlook defense to begin with.

Sven Svenson is a scoring winger who should start fairly high in San Francisco’s lineup and starting alongside at least one 1000+ TPE player should do him well, but I’m not certain it’s quite enough to put him in contention at the moment.

In summary, I probably snubbed a fair number of players, but ice time has really been a big factor in the past and I don’t think many of the players I left out are going to get that in their rookie season.