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*Toast* · 01-23-2023, 06:48 PM

Good afternoon, SHL! I am back with another lovely edition of seasonal San Francisco Pride awards to dish out! The rebuild is in full swing at this point and it will likely be some time before we see the Pride back in the playoffs making a threat to run for championships but we have a great group of people who are actively working to getting that new era for the team well underway. We of course had to say farewell to some of the bigger names on the team with Bfine and Sulo going to Chicago and Philadelphia respectively and said hello to some more draft picks. I really feel like we have one of the best prospect pools across the league if not the best and I look forward to seeing how they all do once we’re ready to compete with the best!

This is the part of the post where I usually go over nominations and awards that the team has won but I can’t even gloat about the team being good with balls after a season where we didn’t even make the post-season. Hopefully next go around we will have something to talk about here minus the Dumpster Trophy which should be an easy point for everyone’s predictions. I do want to congratulate @Caleb on another great SMJHL awards ceremony where he took home another Elias Armia and added the Zach Miller to his trophy case too! He’s clearly a user going places in this league and I couldn’t be happier to have him as Co-GM for the team. Hopefully these nice words make up for the suffering Hayden is going to go through this season. ANYWAYS!

We have some news we would like to share during this awards ceremony. The San Francisco awards have had their names for as long as I can recall reading them. It’s time to change something up. While I do acknowledge the efforts of the past players and users for the team, I also feel like it’s important we acknowledge one of the best eras for the team having come to an end. We had many incredible players and users see through that rebuild and enjoy some success together before it was time to move on. As of this award ceremony and going forward we will be renaming the Geronimo Otto Award. This award goes to the user who represents the best qualities of a leader every season. Typically these are the most active users who are driving discussion in the locker room and doing their best to lead by example for their teammates and in the public eye in spaces outside of the team.

With that in mind I would like to announce that the Otto going forward will be known as the Alex Petrenko Award. @traphag, Alex’ user, was one of the first users to buy into the rebuild that was led by Henrik and Smith three years ago and throughout the entire process all the way through the competitive season. Traphag exemplified what it is to be a leader and a team player having believed in the process and getting to see things through to the point of winning a couple of Bojos as well as seeing Alex’ number retired to the Pridelands. A user and player like Petrenko is hard to come by and San Francisco was much better off with having Traphag around to lead the past rebuild.

The Alex Petrenko Award
As mentioned above, this award is going to our team leader. Their character shines in a room of lovely people and encourages people to stay involved with the team.

Honourable mentions (received min. one vote) go to: Slavakov Vladimirashenko (@Bfine), Emeril Lagasse (@Emeril) and Sven Svenson (@LordBirdman)

And our finalists for the Petrenko this season:
Sophie Bordeleau @boom
Rikard Bjerg @AgentSmith630
Henrik Lekberg Osterman @Henrik

Some familiar faces here! As mentioned earlier, Henrik and Smith are responsible for getting the Pride to where they are. Having to see through a hard rebuild for the Pride and carrying forward regardless what came their way, they were the perfect leaders to help bring the Pride to a competitive era and see through their vision. Still as active as they were then they are great voices to have around a new generation of users. Boom is one of the most active users around the league and hasn’t been afraid to stand up for all users around the league. Also one of our most active players and someone who is leading this new rebuild for the team it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone to see her name here. Our winner this season…

pride

Henrik Lekberg Osterman pride

Henrik! Someone who has constantly seen their name listed for this award in the past is not a surprising winner at all. Going into his final season with the Pride as HLO he has really done everything the team could ever ask of him and is a natural leader. He will leave an impossible hole to fill once retirement comes but we know that he will always be around as a quality user to encourage the best out of everyone around him. We’re infinitely thankful to have someone like you around, Henrik!

The Kelly Rivet Award
Next up is our Kelly Rivet Award. This trophy goes out to the player who stood out to their teammates on the ice and was the team’s MVP for the season. While it was a rough season overall there are still plenty of players who the team wanted to acknowledge. Let’s take a look at those players.

Honourable mentions (received min. one vote) go to: Emeril Lagasse (@Emeril) and Walton Stromberg (@sulovilen)

and our finalists:

Sophie Bordeleau @boom
Slavakov Vladimirashenko @Bfine
Sven Svenson @LordBirdman
Leon Athanasios @Spartan

We’ve got a lot of representation here! Three of the above players received two votes from their teammates and the winner received three so it’s clear that a lot of the team felt that there were plenty of players who stood out for us. Leon Athanasios had a career season despite the weaker roster with 38 goals! Slavakov led all defensemen for the team and somehow survived being played nearly 27 minutes a game. Sven continued to show consistency as he gives regression the fight of its life and Sophie made her debut for the team with quite the impact only being a -24 on a team that saw some players flirting with a -70. Clearly there were weak spots around the roster but there were some players that shined. Our winner this season is…

pride

Slavakov Vladimirashenko! pride

Sota had a great campaign considering he had to carry most of the defensive duties for the team and provided some serious debate with only finding the back of the net twice on his 167 attempts. Regardless he was able to survive being overplayed like and sacrificed quite a bit blocking 241 shots over the course of the season for the squad. Hopefully this upcoming season we are going to see a fantastic season for him as he moves to Chicago and won’t have to carry the weight of weak spots on the San Fran roster.

The Jack Tanner Award
Our next award that will be handed out for this ceremony is the Jack Tanner Award. This award is for the player who has been voted most underrated on the team and across the league. This award usually drives the team insane as our voters constantly vote for separate players as a sign we feel that the entire roster is undervalued by the league! Especially on a team near the bottom of the standings it could be easy to miss some performances we thought were strong. Here are the players the team voted on for S68.

Honourable mentions (received min. one vote) go to: Jukka Timonen (@Juke), Henrik Lekberg Osterman (@Henrik), Emeril Lagasse (@Emeril) and Sven Svenson (@LordBirdman)

And our finalists:
Leon Athanasios @Spartan
Sophie Bordeleau @boom
Slavakov Vladimirashenko @Bfine

Some consistent names for previous awards here as we see the stand outs from this season get the finalist positions for the Jack Tanner. Since San Francisco didn’t make the playoffs it’s not too surprising that the team opted to label some of our best performers as the most underrated as well. Since I already detailed these players earlier let’s get right to the winner!

pride

Leon Athanasios! pride

Back-to-back Tanners for Spartan! Leon exploded as the leader on the ice for the Pride this season and despite regressing a decent amount still found the chemistry that he needed to flirt with a point-per-game season! Dubbing his pairing with Sophie on various lines as the fun line, Leon was able to consistently find the back of the net no matter where we placed him in the lineup. Hopefully he will be able to keep it going during the nice meme season too!

The Pride of the Pride Award
Onto our main event of the night, the Pride of the Pride award! Every season we present this to the user who goes above and beyond what is expected from a member on this team. Usually this comes down to someone who helps lead their team through positivity or does something for the team that was completely unexpected. There have been many users to receive this award over its time but a lot of them see letters on their jersey at some point of their careers. They’re well respected around the league and exemplify what we want the Pride to be recognized for.

This season the team has decided on three finalists and no honourable mentions so let’s get into it:

Henrik Lekberg Osterman @Henrik
Our Petrenko winner from earlier in the night sees himself nominated for Pride of the Pride nearly every season since he stepped away from management of the team. Whenever someone thinks of San Francisco, Henrik is likely one of the first users that comes to mind for that person. He is someone who led the team with class and continues to be a role model for the team as HLO continues to take to the ice for the team he helped build. He’ll be crossing the 1000 games player threshold this season for us before going into retirement and while we weren’t able to get him that Cup, I hope the memories along the way have made it worthwhile.

Slavakov Vladimirashenko @Bfine
Last season Sota received the captaincy of the Pride and was our Pride of the Pride winner! One of my closest friends on this league, Sota joined the Pride from a trade with Edmonton and from day one he has been an energetic voice in the room and helped encourage everyone to get involved with the team wherever possible. A constant unedited voice on the Lions Speak Tonight, he has shown everyone on the Pride what it takes to be a leader and we wish him all of the luck with Chicago where we hope he will put up 50 goals in 19 minutes on the ice average for them after all he had to put up with carrying San Francisco through 68.

Sophie Bordeleau @boom
Boom made her debut for the team last season and has been a voice of positivity since joining the Pride from a trade with Edmonton (deja-vu?). She hasn’t kept this energy limited to the team Discord either as she can constantly be found on the forum generating discussion and making sure to stand up for what is right with grace. She is a respected user in our community and has helped form a safe space on Discord for the 2SLGBTQ+ SHL community so everyone can feel the support they have around them. This kind of leadership and kindness is exactly what the Pride of the Pride award is given out for. With that said…

This season’s winner is…
pride

Sophie Bordeleau / @boom! pride

There are unfortunate recent events that Boom went through with such grace and dignity that it sparked a wave of positivity towards her. I’m extremely proud to be her teammate and to have a user this special lead the team going into a new generation! I wanted to share some of the comments her teammates provided for this vote as well:

“Boom is a huge addition to the LR and always fights for everyone’s rights. She’s a huge asset to the league as a whole and I’m glad she’s found a good home here.”

“It’s Boom, one of the best users on this team, unfairly targeted this season by some of the worst people this site has seen in a long time she handled it with grace and dignity that would have escaped others.”

I can’t say enough to how much we appreciate you Boom and I hope this award shows the love and support you have around you always! Keep being someone this league can look to as a leader!
That’s it for this season’s batch of awards! While we’ve had to say goodbye to some friends again this off-season and things are looking dark going into the regular season, we’ve got a group of people who will help lead this team to a new era. I’m absolutely sold on that with the users we have on board and I can’t wait to see who else gets involved and how far we take this thing. It’s an honour to lead this team!

——

This season with the limited talent on the roster the general managers decided that we would be naming captains for the team for the first time in a bit. We’ll certainly get back to the point where we will be voting on captains but for now there are some standouts that we feel deserve the accolades.

Captain

Sven Svenson - @LordBirdman pride

Sven was one of the longest serving captains before he vacated the title to pursue management for the team. Birdman has been one of the biggest leaders for the team and was another user that helped the Pride through the hard rebuild and helped shape the team into one of the better communities around the league. Sven will carry the C for us as long as he keeps lacing the skates for San Francisco.

Alternate Captains

Henrik Lekberg Osterman / @Henrik pride

Sophie Bordeleau / @boom pride

Same alternate group as last season here. Henrik and Boom are two incredible users and have been great leaders for the team. They represent a passing of the torch as Henrik is going into retirement and Sophie is now leading the team in TPE and will only continue to build on that through the next few seasons. We’re fortunate to have both representing the squad!

Typically this is all I have for you all during one of these award medias but you get to see something extra this time around… a new introduction to the team’s Pridelands (our jersey retirement honours)! This was a lock in since the devastating news that he would be retiring to get another cycle of the league under his belt and should come as no surprise who this user is…

Rikard Bjerg - @AgentSmith630

S63 Bojo Biscuit Award (Best Defensive Defenseman) Nominee
S64 Bojo Biscuit Award (Best Defensive Defenseman) Winner
S65 Bojo Biscuit Award (Best Defensive Defenseman) Nominee
S66 Bojo Biscuit Award (Best Defensive Defenseman) Winner
S64 Scott Stevens Award (Best Defenseman) Nominee
S65 Scott Stevens Award (Best Defenseman) Nominee
S66 Scott Stevens Award (Best Defenseman) Nominee

Rikard Bjerg not only has an argument as one of the greatest players in franchise history, but one to be called by the Hall of Fame as well someday. Bjerg was consistently dominant on the ice as his list of accolades will show you. Constantly the shutdown force that the Pride could lean on, Bejrg was a constant name in talks for the Bojo and had an argument for Stevens as well throughout his peak. Bjerg spent the majority of his career in San Francisco and was able to get his name on several leaderboards for the team. His 696 games played for the team is enough to be in the top 10 along with making the leaderboards for assists, shorthanded points, most time on ice over career and the key things you would expect from a shutdown player with takeaways (including a season with 106 total), hits and shots blocked. The user behind the player, AgentSmith, played a crucial role during this era to help lead the team. From S57 through S64 he was the trusted Co-GM of the team and helped shape a community that would help lead the Pride including a Lance Uppercut nomination in S63. Without Smith and Bjerg the Pride would've never gotten to the point they were at during the early S60s and this induction was set long ago.

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***Caleb*** · 01-23-2023, 06:50 PM

!rollpride

***AgentSmith630*** · 01-23-2023, 06:57 PM

I'm honored to be recognized and live on forever in the Pride HoF!

***boom*** · 01-23-2023, 06:59 PM

Proud to have gained this prestigious award! I don’t want to be famous just because someone bad happened to me, but I’m looking forward to being a leader on this team for as long as I can.

Congrats to all the users who won awards and to Smith for his number retirement!

Spartan · 01-23-2023, 07:15 PM

Congrats Smith and the winners tonight. It's been great to be a part of this team, looking forward to the good vibes during the tank next season!

*Toast* · 01-23-2023, 07:19 PM

01-23-2023, 07:15 PMSpartan Wrote: Congrats Smith and the winners tonight. It's been great to be a part of this team, looking forward to the good vibes during the tank next season!

Thank you for not telling the world I can't spell player names

*traphag* · 01-23-2023, 10:21 PM

Henrik · 01-24-2023, 04:31 AM

!rollpride

Let's go!

LordBirdman · 01-24-2023, 02:55 PM

Rollllll Pride!

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