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hhh81 · 07-25-2020, 04:03 PM

Hello! I’m hhh81, your SMJHL Awards Committee Head. As I enter my (I think?) tenth season on the committee (and eighth as Head), I have some exciting announcements to make. Some of you may have seen a project I worked on a few months ago. This project served a few different goals all at once: (a) helped me and the community at large learn more about our history and how the many SMJHL Awards came to be/got named, (b) get me a sweet pay day, and © laid the groundwork for today’s exciting news.

From that project, I learned most of the awards were named after the players who won them in S1, as well as some major builders on the site since then. There hasn’t been much in the way of renaming of awards in a very long time. Today, all that changes.

Background
In mid-May, I was hired to join the Historian Committee by @luketd. I was super pumped—I’ve wanted to make sure SMJHL Awards got updated for a few seasons now, and now I get paid to help do that. Very cool. During the process, I spent a big chunk of S53 digging through old award shows to compile lists of all the award winners and finalists from SMJHL history. It was during that time I found out @JumpierPegasus won four Chouinard Trophies while a GM of Prince George and St. Louis, which is tied with some other users for the highest number all time. I kept digging and finding more interesting factoids like that. This led to some conversations with people like @Tomen and @JayWhy to try to get a little more context of the 40+ seasons before I joined the site.

The more I looked, the more solidified I was that it was time for some changes, to honor a few more greats on the site. I’m here to announce some big changes coming to SMJHL Awards.

Announcement #1: Raymond Lindsay Voting TPE

For a long time, there was some TPE tied to league awards—guessing correctly, engagement during the award shows, voting for awards, etc. That went away from awhile, and many people forgot about it (I only learned after going through 45 seasons of old award shows to look up finalists/nominees). Then @thecanadiancanuck made a suggestion to make Khan/Lindsay voting private, and @JSS threw out making it a WFT for 1 TPE. I liked the idea, asked @BadWolf and @Gwdjohnson about it, and they said they would chat.

Talks stalled, we got to this season, and I forgot about it. I posted Lindsay voting as normal, and was reminded of the private voting thing. I got it fixed, and worked behind the scenes on the free 1 TPE thing. Found out no one had talked about it and also forgot. We got people talking, discussed the challenges inherent to everyone v. just SMJHL players v. some other version, and landed on everyone can get 1 TPE for voting. I’m happy to discuss the reasoning for/against not just having SMJHL rookies vote, but this will be long enough. Some people got upset because they didn’t know it was an option and it wasn’t advertised well. That’s because I didn’t know we could do it until voting was half over, and I felt it wrong to spam attention for earning TPE v. voting for a player you think deserves to be league MVP. Y’all know now and can get your 1 TPE next season. Sorry for any inconvenience.

TL;DR: people get 1 TPE for voting for the Raymond Lindsay Trophy, the People’s MVP. Congrats, don’t say I never got you anything.

Renaming SMJHL Awards: Why? What would you consider when renaming stuff?

This is a great question. When I looked into the history of the SMJHL, I was surprised to see that some awards had no ties to past players/GMs/users—I thought that was a missed opportunity. Others were named after some questionable people, and others were named for players whose legacies on the league have been forgotten by the layperson or flat out never really had much of a legacy to begin with. I see SMJHL Awards as a way to memorialize some of the best of the league’s past (award names), and recognize the best of today (award winners). In potentially renaming awards, I want to do just that.

There isn’t a specific methodology to what makes a “good” potential choice for renaming an award. Do you focus on players who had outstanding seasons/careers in the SMJHL? How do you balance short spurts of greatness versus four year SMJHL players? Do you prioritize users who’ve been around a long time and had a huge impact on the SMJHL, whether as a GM, Head Office member, or other job? Do you try to snag some of the best in SHL history to never have an award named after them? How about people who’ve won a TON of awards?

In the end, it’s a mixture of a lot of the above. I—and my SMJHL Awards Committee—hope to find a balance between excellent numbers in the SMJHL (either as player or management), continued involvement in the site (activity), and overall impact. We have and will consider balancing players with shorter yet outstanding SMJHL careers with those who were around longer in the league (and live at the top of career statistical lists.) A few were also pretty vocal about loving the idea of having more awards named after users who are still around and invested in the site, as it’s cool to interact with the namesakes of the awards.

Announcement #2: Renaming Awards

Now here’s the part you’ve been assumedly waiting for (probably impatiently). Which awards are getting renamed for S55? Why?

Best General Manager – Mathias Chouinard Trophy
I’m not a fan of having two awards named after the same player/person (the SHL’s Eastern Conference finalist also wins a Chouinard). I think there are enough great people who have helped this site in countless ways that we don’t need to double up. If ever there was a user who deserves it, I think that @Spangle qualifies. Still, after looking through some league history (specifically of this award!), I knew this was an award I wanted us to reconsider. I also considered renaming the Vyacheslav Onoprienko, but for reasons I won’t get into here (but did discuss in the long media previously mentioned), decided against it because it’s two different players (Vidrik and Vyacheslav).

There are a lot of great users who are deserving of consideration. @fever95 (S11-S13), @JumpierPegasus & @Cuffy (S18-S20), @Ballerstorm & @Eggy215 (S26-S28), @ej27 & @Jenny (S31-S33) have all won three straight Chouinards as GMs. @TML99 was nominated a league-record 11 times, winning four. JP is tied with TML99, with four Chouinards himself. @Wongy (under his previous username, coolstar87) is third all-time with six nominations and one win. @notorioustig has won three of them since S44, including breaking his Four Star Cup drought in S53. He also holds Detroit’s franchise record for wins by a good margin and is now second all-time in SMJHL GM wins (and will never sniff first place). In the end, there was one person who stood out for us, balancing all the things we considered important in an award.

A surprising number of teams have won back-to-back Four Star Cups—Vancouver and Kelowna have each done it three times and Montreal/Carolina has done it twice (including our most recent incidence in S49 and S50). It took until the S40s before a team was able to threepeat in the Four Star Cup Finals. In fact, it happened TWICE in that decade (Kelowna & St. Louis). It might surprise many of the younger members to know that the user who built those teams in Kelowna from S40-S42 who made league history is still with us. @nour was GM of the Knights from S39-S43 (he was also Samee’s Co-GM in S38). He’s also been the Co-GM of Detroit since S47. During his tenure managing Kelowna and Detroit, the teams have won four Four Star Cups (S40, S41, S42, S53) and four Laurifer Trophies for the best record on the league (S40, S49, S52, S53). Nour is second all-time with 8 nominations for the Chouinard, winning three times (S40, S52, S53). He’s continued to give back to our community as the Co-Commissioner of the SHL the last few seasons.

Nour’s first player, Nour Harrak, put up 44-44-88 in 150 games with Kelowna and St. Louis. He then continued onto a solid SHL career with Hamilton, scoring 292 points in 550 career games. In the end, I’m honored to announce the Best SMJHL GM Award will now be known as the Nour Harrak Trophy. Let’s see if the smelly boy can win his own trophy, shall we?

Occasus & Oriens Trophies—Eastern and Western Conference Champions

These were named for the Latin words for east and west. That is kinda cool, but as I shared in my media, I felt it was a missed opportunity to recognize more players/users who helped shape the site. As I started doing research, a few names jumped out to me. I quickly realized and recommended to my committee that we consider renaming these awards after duos of outstanding players/GMs from the SMJHL’s past, versus just one person.

Once that was on the table, there were tons of ways we could go. Vancouver and Kelowna have been around from the first days of the NWJHL, and have some of the most successful franchises in the league. They’ve also had many former GMs go onto SHL success (@DrunkenTeddy, @luketd, @Hallsy, @JR95 and that’s just Vancouver!) They are also both very far West, making it hard to best balance the recognition. St. Louis has also had some incredible success over the long tenure of a certain former GM. At first, I was going to have mixed pairs of former GMs who have helped shape the site in significant and immeasurable ways. The more I discussed it, the more it felt unbalanced with version one. I thought a little more about it and two very impressive GM-duos rose to the top. Let me introduce you all to the Linna-Landvik Cup and the King-Kurczewski Gauntlet.

Linna-Landvik Cup Knights

Replacing the Occasus Trophy (West champion), the Linna-Landvik Cup is named to memorialize Mikka Linna and Mia Landvik, the previous players of @ej27 and @Jenny. Linna and Landvik played for Kelowna from S27 to S29, before going onto long careers in the SHL. EJ and Jenny were the GMs of Kelowna from S30-S36; they won Four Star Cups in S31 and S32 and won the Chouinard Trophy three straight years (S31-S33). Their 195-121-34 record still stands as a franchise record for most wins.

They also, more importantly, were the SMJHL Player Progression Co-Heads from S30-S52. Few have done more to shape the experience of new users on the site or for longer than EJ and Jenny. Their experiences in the SMJHL will forever be linked together (even if their new players, Olivier Cloutier and Leopold Lockhart, played for different teams). Thank you for all you’ve done; I’m honored to be able to announce this change for two of the unsung greats in the league. There should be no question that they deserve it.

King-Kurczewski Gauntlet Scarecrows

Replacing the Oriens Trophy (East champion), we have the King-Kurczewski Gauntlet. This award memorializes another pair of GMs who many of us may be more familiar with—Ryan King @TML99 and Joe Kurczewski @JKortesi81 of the St. Louis Scarecrows.

From S34-S45, this duo was a force in leading the St. Louis Scarecrows. I don’t think anyone else comes close, now or in the future, to matching or exceeding TML99’s 701 career wins as GM from S27-S52. The duo won four Four Star Cups together (S29, S39, S44, S45) and were the architects of the threepeat from S44-S46 (the second ever such feat, and second time in the S40s.) If you cut the franchise wins to just the TML-JoeK era, their 344 wins still would be 1st place in league history (though it’s very reasonable for @notorioustig to pass that with another season or two of GMing.

Since then, TML headed off into retirement/inactivity while JoeK left the Crows to found his own SHL team, the defending S54 Challenge Cup Champion New Orleans Specters. Of King’s record 11 Chouinard nominations (including 4 wins), JoeK was the Co-GM for six of them (including 2 of the wins). The duo simply worked well together, playing off each other’s strengths. Their tenue was not without controversy, but it’s hard to argue they weren’t effective. TML99 won six Laurifer Trophies (Best Record) during his ridiculously long tenure.

I chose a gauntlet because it sounded cool and calling it a cup… would have some subtext I hoped to avoid. In the end, the timing of Kurczewski’s retirement lined up well with our decision making process, and future Eastern Conference Champions will have their chance to throw down the gauntlet. Congrats @TML99 and @JKortesi81

I want to very specifically mention how close I was to including @DrunkenTeddy Whalers

. I literally cannot explain or comprehend all he’s done for the site, both in team management for Vancouver and Hamilton (maybe more?) and most importantly with site management and in the site Owners’ group. When it came down to it, we chose two pairs of outstanding duos in league history versus pairing Teddy with a different team’s GM. Robert Phelps will have his day eventually on a piece of imaginary hardware, I am quite confident about that.

There is one other award we’ve considered renaming in the near future, but I’ve decided to postpone that until a later date. There is another piece of news I wanted to get published first

Announcement #3: NEW AWARDS & COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Now here’s the fun part. We’re introducing new awards, and we’d like your input as we do it.

The awards themselves our set—we’ll be introducing not one… not two… but THREE new awards for S55. We haven’t decided on who to name these awards after; this is where we would like your input. Let me be clear, this isn’t going to be a voting contest. You can’t locker room brigade to get your favorite guy on your current roster or a meme player named. The Awards Committee will take your nominations into consideration, and they will help us as we shape our short lists for what past player(s) we want to recognize with these new awards. In the end, the decision is ours. I’ve asked BadWolf and have her full support on this choice. We want your feedback and ideas, though. We don’t know everything, so your feedback helps us make sure we’re considering all of our options to make the best decisions for these awards. The better info you have, the better decision you can make.

The three new awards
1. Most Improved Player –
2. Best Defensive Defenseman –
3. Goalie tandem with the highest Team Save Percentage (TSV%)

As a committee, we came to consensus on these three awards pretty easily. I’ve felt the need for defensive defenseman since the SHL introduced the Biscuit award a few seasons back, and many of the newer guys on the team were adamant we needed some sort of award to recognize players who had strong, possibly breakthrough seasons, but might not have been the best of the best. Some wanted to have a best 350 build player; others thought about pulling something for a “best overager” for a 425 player. In the end, we settled on “most improved.” It’s a little nebulous, but gives us the flexibility in recognizing more people. I’m excited to work with my committee in developing some new processes to decide on that award. I’m sure this will be a controversial award, as it usually is in the SHL. I pray not to enrage @39alaska39.

Finally, only having one goalie award (Tom Corcoran) isn’t fun. Skaters can pick up a number of top scoring awards, so goalies should also have an opportunity to pick up some hardware off pure statistics. Like the Martucci, Hanson, and O’Keefe Trophies, this new award would be based off whichever team has the highest team save percentage (total saves/total shots) each season. This factors in the performance of backup goalies (who frequently can be overlooked), while fairly balancing both goalies’ contributions.

Some of you may ask “hey, why not use lowest goals against, like the NHL does?” We asked that same question, and the Awards Committee was nearly divided 50/50 on which was the better choice. I asked us to vote, and SV% carried the majority.

Several committee members critiqued lowest goals against as skewing toward the best teams in the league winning even more hardware, especially in the wild wild world of FHM. One committee member shared that “Team SV% is more diverse, and not skewed towards great teams as much. Since a goalie behind a good team faces a lot less shots, they're almost automatically going to give up fewer goals.” This opens the award to a wider range of teams in the running, which can help recognize goalie tandems who have very good seasons, but may not rack up the wins. This award will be calculated to four decimal places (the ten-thousandths place), as it is very unlikely to have a tie to that point.

I’ve created a short Google Form—if you have a suggestion for a player to name one or more of those awards after, fill it out and give us a little explanation why you think that player deserves to have an award named after them. Keep in mind that we’re looking to find a balance between an outstanding SMJHL career, continued involvement on the site, and the overall impact they’ve had on the SMJHL/SHL.

As an additional note, players must be out of the SMJHL for at least 5 seasons before they can be eligible for award naming consideration. We don’t want recency bias to completely overtake this process. It’s very difficult to put current players into historical context, and recency tends to lead to vote brigading so “the loudest wins.”

Please submit your nominations before 08/07/20. After that point, the SMJHL Awards Committee will consider your nominations, add anyone from our own shortlists (I looked at a lot of old season stats, y’all), and start making some determinations. We hope to have the awards named before the S55 SMJHL Awards Show. This process could take some time, and I want to do it correctly. If it’s not ready, the awards will be awarded this season, and then we’ll announce the names at a later date.

I’m excited for this next step for the SMJHL Awards; the shift to FHM gave us a ton more data to consider, so it’s only natural to add a few more awards.

Quote:3149 words, ready for grading!

ImShiny · 07-25-2020, 04:06 PM

pog

hhh81 · 07-25-2020, 04:06 PM

Also, there are no retractions, nor should there be (clickbait titles are fun). I've had a few GMs reach out to me in the last week with questions/concerns, and we've talked about it maturely. They might not agree with our logic, but I think they got to a place of respecting it. I appreciate their feedback and advocacy for their players, as any good GM would.

I assume that's the end of the drama, as no one else has reached out with questions or concerns about the S54 awards xoxo