The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League announced its major award winners Friday night as President Bill Chow began his journey throughout the league by going to Flin Flon last night to present Brett Boehm and Josh Roach with their hardware.
The link for the award winners is below (the Coach Of The Year is being voted on by the media and will be announced in the next week or so).
http://www.sjhl.ca/news_article/show/230600?referrer_id=618093
There has been a bit of backlash in the Twitter world about announcing the winners on a Friday night, but that is unavoidable when the President has to make a schedule that allows him to be present to give the recipients their honors; furthermore I would argue the greatest interest in the SJHL comes on the weekend as that's when the majority of games are played. Sure, you may be competing with the games, themselves, but website traffic for the league is, by far, heaviest on the weekend.
I'm not trying to downplay the importance of traditional forms of media; but the reality is that people are going direct to the source (especially when it comes to sports) if they want information or they are grabbing it from social media like Twitter and the day of the week isn't overly important. Still, I recognize in small Saskatchewan markets the timeliness is better if you can do it at the beginning of the week so the news isn't as dated for the publications. Most radio stations now don't staff on weekends like they do during the week, so it maybe isn't going to get the same airplay as it would if it had come out on a Tuesday.
Nevertheless, waiting to announce the winners until next week (several days after the Flin Flon players were presented) wasn't an option.
Now, here are my thoughts on the winners, my thoughts only as the winners were determined by a vote of the coaches:
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Brett Boehm, Flin Flon
This was a no brainer. What's mind boggling is that he didn't win it unanimously. Sounds like Josh Betinol (Battlefords) got a couple of votes and Tyrel King (Kindersley) did as well. Boehm is a National Hockey League prospect who put up over a point per game. Like I said, no brainer.
GOALIE OF THE YEAR - Matt Hrynkiw, Humboldt
With Alex Wakaluk winning the MVP, it seems like the always under appreciated Hrynkiw got unappreciated again despite winning this. He's withstood competition from within his own team all three years and each time he remains the constant. My take on Hrynkiw is that if you have a team that's rebuilding, he's not your guy. If you have a contending team and you need a goalie who's sharp and can deal with infrequent action (and a lot of goalies can't do this), he is definitely your guy. It's kind of funny to me that in a league where it's regarded that goaltending isn't strong; we have Hrynkiw, Wakaluk, and Davis Jones all capable of being a league MVP.
DEFENSEMAN OF THE YEAR - Josh Roach, Flin Flon
Again, a no brainer. He had the best offensive season for a defenseman since Brady Wacker. He also worked at improving his character, leadership skills, and defensive responsibilities. My only argument against Roach here would be to give him either the Most Outstanding Player Award or MVP instead of this. In a lot of respects, I think Roach was the SJHL's top player this year. In which case, I would have voted for Brody Luhning of the North Stars or Brady Norrish of the Terriers.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER - Alex Wakaluk, Melville
When you look at the MVP vs. the MOP; I see this as a 'where would the team be without the MVP' as opposed to 'wow, this guy was the most impressive in the league regardless of the team's finish'. Melville had a questionable commitment to team defense for most of the year and, somehow, Wakaluk kept kicking out pucks. Instead of being in the race for first on the final night of the season, I think Melville would have had a record similar to what Notre Dame and Battlefords have. So, I agree with this decision. My runner-up here would be Ian McNulty of Melville or Jones of Nipawin.
MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER - Ian McNulty, Melville
After Russell Trudeau's four-point effort last night, McNulty may actually lose the scoring title. To me, this could have gone to about half a dozen players. I like McNulty a great deal. I think, in addition to his offense, McNulty doesn't get nearly enough credit for his value in the dressing room, especially on a team that has no shortage of strong personalities. I don't know if I would have voted for him here, however. I think I would have to consider him for MVP instead of the MOP, as the Mils weren't even close to being as good when he was out of the line-up. With all due respect to Trudeau, he wouldn't be in a position to overtake McNulty for the scoring crown if he didn't play with McNulty. When travelling around the league, the players that never seemed to disappoint me were: Joey Davies (Humboldt), Cody Pongracz (Humboldt), and Roach (Flin Flon). So I would have them in the mix here too.
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