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**RomanesEuntDomus** · 05-24-2020, 02:08 PM

S54 Awards Nominations: Day 5

Last off-season some of the fellas in the awards committee got together to pump out a few articles highlighting each award and the list of nominees it hopes of generating some hype and discussion ahead of the ceremony. It went over well so we're back at it again in S53! Much like last time we'll highlight the awards over the course of the next few days in the following order...

Day 1 - Bojo Trophy and Jesster Trophy
Day 2 - Dar Trophy and Richan Trophy
Day 3 - McBride Trophy and Uppercut Trophy
Day 4 - Stevens Trophy and McKeil Trophy
Day 5 - Mexico Trophy, Razov Trophy and Littleton Trophy

Alright, let’s get to the final group of nominees on what we have unofficially named “MVP Day” – the day where we announce the most value contributors in the regular season, the playoffs and also off the ice!

Damian Littleton Award (Most Dedicated Member)

The Damian Littleton Award is probably the single most prestigious award out there because it has nothing to do with the sim and all the randomness that can come with it. It is all about what someone contributed to this site and the dedication that has been shown to makes this an enjoyable experience for everyone. Doing this and the league recognizing it is more important than any superstar you can ever build, so the following nominees can be very proud!

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@JR95

A few seasons ago JR told us that he didn’t want to be nominated for the Littleton anymore for his simming work... Well we say screw you JR, you can’t tell us what to do! We feel that this is the right time to honor him once again because of all the new challenges and extra responsibilities that the sim change has brought with it especially for the simmer. JR has risen to the new task in exceptional fashion, being consistent as ever in his sim-times while also adding regular live-sims to his repertoire. Those live sims have been both enjoyable for the viewers and also useful for everyone who want to make sure that no rules are broken, and it has already helped uncover some transgressions that occured this season.

@Kalakar

Many of the things that have been said about JR can also be said about Kalakar at the junior level. While the responsibilities for the junior simmer might not be quite as expansive as for the simmer at the SHL-level, consistency might actually be even more important in juniors in order to keep new players engaged and help them find their rhythm. On top of providing that consistency, Kalakar also contributed heavily to the IIHF this season, simming both the WJC and WC in just as flawless a fashion as he did the SMJHL season, giving him the highes amount of raw total sim work of anyone in that position in recent history.

@"luketd"

Lastly, and the only person on this list who didn’t have anything to do with simming, is luketd who took over the leagues history department this season and has instantly started assembling a great group of people and putting in a lot of work to help us give more data and ressources for the league to be able to recognize and celebrate its past. This work includes a lot of research, like digging up old indexes and compiling information that is spread out around the site or even on off-site sources into easy to read documents, as well as creative work like promoting articles about the leagues history or writing them himself, as luke already did on a bunch of topics. Planning has already started on some even bigger history-related projects as well which we hope will come to fruition soon, but for less than a season as Head Historian, luke has contributed so much already.

Honorable Mention: nour

Anton Razov Trophy (Playoff MVP)

Many players can have the occasionally great game or rack up a lot of points against weaker performance, but few are able to consistently perform at that very level when it counts the most, and against the very best competition in the league. It is in the playoffs that this trial by fire occurs in its most pure form and where the leagues truest stars can be born, in the hopes of not just going home with a cup but the Anton Razov Trophy for Playoff MVP as well! Our nominees this season are…

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Gabriel Johnson from the Hamilton Steelhawks

@Gwdjohnson

This years cup champion, the Hamilton Steelhawks, didn’t build their success so much on impressive scoring but on an exceptional defensive performance, and one of the main reasons for that was the big play of Gabriel Johnson. Johnson performed well on both ends of the ice, putting up 11 points for 2nd on the team as well as 26 Hits and 11 Takeaways (also 2nd). His single most impressive stat are his shots blocked though, which sit at an phenomenal 40 in just 15 games, a number that is fantastic for someone on a team that is actually good and therefore doesn’t spend all game in his own end, and it becomes even more impressive when you find out that the second best shot blocker on the team still only has about half as many.

Geezus Kryyst from the Hamilton Steelhawks

@Narconis

We already talked about the Steelhawks best defenseman, now let’s talk about the second integral part of every stalwart defensive performance: The goaltender. And boy did Hamilton Steelhawks netminder Geezus Kryyst put in a fantastic performance this season, in an epic duel against two very good Blizzard goaltenders he was still able to outshine his competition with a ludicrous 0.941 Save-Percentage and Goals Against Average of 1.41, with two shutouts to his name as well. Great goalie performances at key times have proven to maybe be the single most important factor in a team’s chance at a cup-run, and Kryyst has given the Steelhawks just that this season.

Tony Pepperoni from the Edmonton Blizzard

@"TommySalami"

The Edmonton Blizzard had one of the more spectacular routes into the Challenge Cup finals in recent memory, winning the Conference Finals against LA in dramatic fashion in four consecutive OT games. They ended up falling to the favorited Steelhawks in the finals but not after putting up another good fight, being carried yet again by their star player of many years, Tony Pepperoni. Despite losing in the finals, Pepperoni ended up outscoring everyone by a significant margin, putting up 20 points in 17 games, which is 7 more than the next highest scorer and almost twice as much as the next highest person who actually got a nomination for the Razov. Razov votings are always heavily tilted towards players from the team that won the cup, but if there is a year where we could see an exception to this rule and a breaking with convention, this might be it.

Honorable Mention: Robert Phelps

Ron Mexico Award (League MVP)

For our very last award, we come to one of the most straightforward ones: Most Valuable Player in the regular season. While the Littleton and the Razov might hold a little more prestige as mentioned above, the Ron Mexico Award is arguable still the most important one because it allows everyone to compete for it, not just the people who are lucky enough to be on a squad that make it deep into the playoffs, or who are in a position and have the time to necessitate big changes on the site. Our nominees for League MVP in Season 53 are…

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Flacko Lagerfield from the Hamilton Steelhawks

@JSS

The league’s top-scorer is always a front runner for this award and Flacko Lagerfield is no exception. The veteran who had joined the Hamilton Steelhawks from Tampa Bay last season crowned an impressive debut season in Ontario with an even more impressive second year that saw him put up 34 goals and 37 assists for 71 points to lead everyone. He was an incredible weapon on the Powerplay, leading the league in this regard as well with 28 PP points, 18 of them goals. He also is one of the few top-forwards with a positive takeaway-giveaway ratio so even if he isn’t a defensive forward by any means, he still managed to be an asset even when not having the puck.

Poopity Scoop from the Buffalo Stampede

@Baelor Swift

We already talked about Poopity Scoops accomplishments when presenting his nomination for the Scott Stevens Award for best Defenseman, but his performance this season sure deserves some extra attention and additional nomination for overall MVP as well. With 57 points Scoop was the only Defenseman to even get close to the Top-10 in scoring and with just a single point more he would’ve actually made it into the Top-5. He was the only Defenseman above a Point per Game while also putting up very solid numbers in almost all defensive categories including Hits, TA/GA-ratio and DGR. His +44 rating is second in the league and better than both of his competitors, even though his team finished behind both Lagerfield’s and Wagstrom’s squads in the standings and the defensive pairing of Scoop and his teammate Cassius Darrow just proved to be dominant all season, also making Scoop the only Defenseman on a playoff team who led his team in scoring.

Ola Wagstrom from the New England Wolfpack

@StamkosFan

Our last nominee is the leagues best Sniper, Ola Wagstrom out of New England. While Flacko Lagerfield was a bit of a surprise when he burst onto the scene this season while entering his twilight years, Wagstrom was basically the complete opposite: Someone who everyone expected would be dominant this season, showcased by how heavily he featured in the Awards Predictions. And Wagstrom didn’t disappoint, leading the league with 42 goals and coming in second in points with 68, while also having one of the leagues best plus-minus. The 42 goals are especially impressive considering that it was an whooping 8 goals more than the next best scorer, Lagerfield with 34. On top of that Wagstrom was the was the player who fired the most shots on goal over the year (283) and was second in Powerplay-production, although in this category he narrowly lost out to his rival Lagerfield by just one goal and one point in each category. It’s gonna be interesting to see which style of forward the voters like more, or if the dominant blueliner can outshine them both!

Honorable Mentions: Maxime Bouchard, Piotr Czerkawski, Johannes Leitner, Tony Pepperoni, Philipp Winter

This concludes this year’s edition of our Awards Nominations articles. I hope you enjoyed them and that many of you tune in for the actual Awards Show and as always, feel free to leave your feedback both on the selections and on the articles themselves in here!

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