anyway, because this veered immediately into...all that, and I think some of the accomplishments here have been overshadowed, I want to shout out a couple of people/teams who were on my initial ballot but didn't make the final cut! I know everybody comes in with the popcorn when a thread gets messy but I think that really does a disservice to the positives and dampens some of the enthusiasm people should have for having their accomplishments celebrated, so I'm going to throw some positivity out there.

- For Mexico and for Richan: Anastasia Söderstrom - yeah I know she's already on there for something else, but I actually had her on my ballot for these two as well - we live in an era where the game tries so hard to convince us that goalies don't matter, but I really think she contributed enormously to this team even when the wins didn't shake out in her favor. Calgary was 10th in standings, but they were 7th in goals against and 11th in goals for. She also faced more shots than all but five other goalies (and several of those others were on significantly worse teams). I'm happy to see her in the finals for Khan as well. Her personal numbers also went up despite her team's performance going down - the team notched three fewer wins on her watch than last season BUT she faced almost a hundred more shots in two fewer games played, and her save percentage went UP and her GAA went DOWN.

- For both Uppercut and McKeil - I also had the Manhattan Rage on my ballot. I was extremely impressed this last season how their drafting strategy led to success for their homegrown team. I know we (myself included) often focus a lot on big FA moves and big trades, but I also really love to see good drafting pan out, and I think their coaching success this past season is also a result of their drafting.

I think that's the big ones for now, but I might have more later!