The NHL Fantasy Hockey Awards
In light of the NHL handing out their awards this week, I thought it was only right that the Fantasy Hockey Awards be handed out as well.
I am going to incorporate similar trophies handed out by the NHL but I am going to include position trophies as well. These trophies will be awarded to players based on a points system that incorporates such skater categories as goals, assists, power play points, shots-on-goal, penalty minutes, hits, blocks and plus/minus. For the goalies, they will be recognized for Wins, shutouts, goals against average and save percentage. To calculate the point totals, Fantasy Hockey Geek was used as the calculating tool and each category was worth one point.
Here are your 2014-15 NHL Fantasy Award Winners:
The Vezina Trophy.
Given to the leagues top goaltender. This trophy should come as no surprise as the winner was the Montreal Canadiens goaltender, Carey Price.
| Player | GP | Win | L | OTL | SO | GA | SHA | GAA | SV% |
| PRICE, CAREY | 66 | 44 | 16 | 6 | 9 | 130 | 1953 | 1.96 | 0.9334 |
Price was the clear winner this year but Braden Holtby was a close second in the voting. Pekka Rinne was the third place winner in this year’s voting in the points setup.
The Calder Memorial Trophy
Given to the top rookie. This year’s winner is from the Nashville Predators, Filip Forsberg.
| Player | GP | G | A | P | PntPG | +/- | PIM | Shots | HITS | PPG | PPP | SHG | BLKS | PPTOI | %PP | %SH | TOI/G | %TOI |
| FORSBERG, FILIP | 82 | 26 | 37 | 63 | 0.77 | 15 | 24 | 237 | 108 | 6 | 19 | 0 | 28 | 02:50 | 51.1 | 0.5 | 17:20 | 28.4 |
This trophy was a close race and in the end, Forsberg managed to outlast runner up, Anders Lee from the New York Islanders by the slimmest of margains. Forsberg ened up with 488 total points; Lee with 486. Third place for this award went to Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning who managed to garner 428 points.
The James Norris Trophy
Given to the leagues top defenseman, this years winner is from the Nashville Predators, Shea Weber.
| Player | GP | G | A | P | PntPG | +/- | PIM | Shots | HITS | PPG | PPP | SHG | BLKS | PPTOI | %PP | %SH | TOI/G | %TOI |
| WEBER, SHEA | 78 | 15 | 30 | 45 | 0.58 | 15 | 72 | 237 | 166 | 5 | 15 | 1 | 147 | 03:05 | 55.8 | 51.1 | 26:22 | 43.2 |
Even though he continually gets passed over in the real NHL for this award, there’s no denying who was the best defenseman in fantasy hockey during the 14-15 season. Dustin Byfuglien made it close, but “Buff” also spent time at forward so I am sure that helped his numbers to some extent. Weber ended up the year with 689 total points, while Byfuglien was close with 662. Coming in third is also a bit of a surprise as the hits/blocks machine Brooks Orpik rounded out our top three with 655 points.
The Wayne Gretzky Award
Given to the leagues top center. This year’s award is awarded to, from the St. Louis Blues, David Backes.
| Player | GP | G | A | P | PntPG | +/- | PIM | Shots | HITS | PPG | PPP | SHG | BLKS | PPTOI | %PP | %SH | TOI/G | %TOI |
| BACKES, DAVID | 80 | 26 | 32 | 58 | 0.73 | 7 | 104 | 183 | 227 | 10 | 16 | 0 | 87 | 02:25 | 47.9 | 33.8 | 18:38 | 30.5 |
A complete player who hits all the categories well, Backes was the clear winner for our league this past season. Backes racked up 672 total points, while the runner up, Joe Pavelski, managed to total 577 points. Third place was awarded to Ryan Kesler, who score had a total of 570 points.
The Gordie Howe Award
This award is handed to the top winger in the league. This year’s winner, from the Washington Capitals, is Alexander Ovechkin.
| Player | GP | G | A | P | PntPG | +/- | PIM | Shots | HITS | PPG | PPP | SHG | BLKS | PPTOI | %PP | %SH | TOI/G | %TOI |
| OVECHKIN, ALEXANDER | 81 | 53 | 28 | 81 | 1.00 | 10 | 58 | 395 | 259 | 25 | 34 | 0 | 32 | 03:49 | 83.7 | 0.3 | 20:19 | 33.3 |
This award wasn’t even close. No other winger was even in the same breath as Ovechkin, who put up an amazing 869 points in 2014-15. Coming in a distant second place, hit machine, Matt Martin from the New York Islanders who scored 633 points. The race for third place was extremely close as Martin beat out Winnipeg Jet Andrew Ladd by only one point, who ended up with 632 points.
The Hart Memorial Trophy
Just like in the NHL, this one goes to the top player in the league and this year’s winner is easily Alexander Ovechkin. The runner-ups were Shea Weber and David Backes. Congrats to OV for another stellar fantasy season.
The General Manager Award
This award goes to you, and everyone who enjoys fantasy hockey. I know, it seems corny, but everyone who loves playing fantasy hockey deserves this award. I used to think I watched a lot of hockey prior to getting involved into fantasy hockey, but ever since joining multiple leagues, I pay more attention to more details now than I ever did. It gives us all a chance to interact with our favorite game in a social atmosphere that can be second to none.
To all you fantasy hockey GM’s out there, keep up the great work and good luck in your draft and next season.
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