SPNHL Season 34 Awards
By Chad and Fluri
HERE WE GO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Welcome to the Season 34 SPNHL AWARDS! This season we witnessed some new winners, some repeat winners, and some winners returning to form after some time off. Chad and I (Fluri) have taken some time to break down the awards for you, with some in depth numbers, and breakdown. Being that the draft is tomorrow as well leading into Season 35, we have also included a quick breakdown at the end of the article of all the teams, new or old locations, and their resigns. So sit back, and enjoy our leadup to Season 35.
Season 34 Conn Smythe Trophy Winner: Ciulla19
This isn’t normal in most cases that the Conn Smythe winner is from the team that loses in the cup final, but this wasn’t an ordinary case. We have spoken about how many of the Dallas players won awards this season based on their stellar play and dominance all year, and that’s fine. Ciulla had an ok season in Ottawa, went 7-7 in 14 games, with a 0.819 SV% and a 2.93 GAA. Good enough to get Ottawa into the playoffs and give them a round 1 birth against the Flyers. But then Ciulla kicked it into high gear, playing lights out for most of the playoffs. And being a driving factor in the fact that not only would Ottawa beat the Flyers in the 1st round 4-2 in that series, but THEN went into the 2nd round, against the Presidents Trophy winning Detroit Red Wings. And helped Ottawa finish them off in a 6 game series as well, also with a final series record of 4-2. This setup the David vs Goliath matchup. Ciulla and his Senators, who no one figured would be where they were, took the big meanies of the west to a 7th game, BARELY falling to them 4-3 in the Stanley Cup Finals. On the shoulders of Ciulla, Ottawa proved they could compete, and made it a hell of a series. Ciulla deserves this award, as well as the Ottawa Senators for their determination in the playoffs. Great season guys.
Season 34 Plus-Minus Winner: Reapz2313
For the second season in a row Reapz takes home the Plus-Minus award. Reap finished a +96 on his filthy line with his longtime teammate Kidmoney and LeCupidon who finished # 2 in the league in points. That just shows you how dominant that Detroit line was and probably the reason why they won the presidents trophy for the second straight season. Congrats Reap!
Season 34 Jack Adams Winner: Yesc__
Yesc came into this season with a plan in place to build a powerhouse. After resigning Grammyhands in the offseason he went into the draft with 2 first round picks. He certainly made the most of those picks selecting reigning Hart Trophy Winner Iam_mrbean and reigning 2 time Vezina Trophy Winner chadkillz. Over the next few rounds he picked 2 defenseman who have played together for years with the picks of Royalkc and Ulitimategamer. This created maybe the best top 6 in the league. His great draft didn’t stop there. In the later rounds he selected great depth pieces Sidd05 along with rookies iAm-Mister-H and IceColdCaptain who all played important roles for the Stars Throughout the season. Yesc wins the Jack Adams award as the GM who completed his responsibilities to the highest level. Leading the Stars all the way to a Stanley Cup.
Season 34 William M. Jennings Winner: ucantcme_kamakaz
Kamakaz had a stellar season between the pipes for the Red Wings that almost won him a Vezina Trophy, however he didn’t walk away empty handed. Kamakaz wins the Jennings Trophy with Detroit, as a team they had the lowest goals against in the league over the course of the regular season. Kamakaz played a key role in helping the Red Wings keep that goals against so low. In a league where scoring is at a premium having the lowest goals against is a real accomplishment for a team.
Season 34 Lady Byng Memorial Winner: TrueLegend07
After winning this award for 6 straight seasons from season 25 until season 30 and 7 times overall Truelegend went on a little bit of a break and let some other players win. TrueLegend has always been a player that plays well on both sides of the ice, very disciplined, but also very skilled. And it showed again this season, as TrueLegend won the Lady Byng for the 8th time in his SPNHL career with a total of 4 penalty minutes ALL SEASON…..and it’s not like he didn’t play much….he had 36 GP to boot. Congrats on a well played season TrueLegend..
Season 34 Maurice Richard Winner: Iam_mrbean
Bean came into season 34 as one of the favourites to win this award, with his stellar thumb skill in front of the net, being a burden for most goalies and defenses to deal with, he put up a whopping 93 goals in just 37 games played. That’s an average of 2.5 GPG. The last time we saw someone with an average GPG this high and win this award was back in season 25 when Skinner had 101 goals in 36 games (for a 2.8 GPG in case anyone is wondering). This putting Bean’s stellar season 34 at 2nd highest GPG in league history for the winner of this award. Congrats Bean!
Season 34 Art Ross Trophy Winner: Iam_mrbean
This one is a little tougher than just looking at the total goals scored by a player in the regular season, as this counts assists as well. Bean didn’t disappoint however, putting up a whopping 167 PTS in 37 Games (For a total of 4.5 PPG). This again, PPG wise puts him 2nd all time in SPNHL history for the highest PPG out of a winner of this award, trailing only Skinner in season 25 who had 200 PTS in 36 Games (a whopping 5.5PPG that season).
Honorable Mention: LeCupidon
I wanted to add LeCupidon in as an honorable mention because Bean only edged him out by 4 points. LeCupidon put up 163 points in 39 games for the Red Wings. That’s a 4.1 PPG rate slightly under Bean’s 4.5 PPG. Great job Cupidon on another fantastic season unfortunately it wasn’t enough to pass Bean.
Season 34 Bill Masterton Winner: redconcept88
The Bill Masterton trophy this year goes to Redconcept. This award is given to the player best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to the SPNHL. Red was running the Nashville Predators for season 34, and went through a lot of ups and downs. Eventually ran into an issue where he eventually lost most of his team due to no ill will of his own, but he still put in the time and put in the effort to try to make it fun for who he had left, and never gave up. This is the kind of owner the league needs to have, and he exemplifies what running a team is all about. Taking the good with the bad, but never letting it waiver the ultimate goal. Congratulations, Redconcept!
Season 34 Calder Memorial Winner: ROLLaBACKWOODS
Rolla had quite the season for himself this year in his first campaign with the Flyers, finishing 6th in league scoring, and being the last player in the league to reach the 100 point total for the season. Finishing with 55G and 45 A for 100 Points in 35 Games. We look forward to seeing Rolla progress in SP moving forward, and staying as an elite force offensively for seasons to come. Congrats Mr. Rookie of the year!
Season 34 Frank J. Selke Winner: Reapz2313
This award goes to the player deemed to be the best forward at the defensive aspect of the game. This years winner goes to the captain of the Red Wings, and o’ Fearless Leader for them as well, Mr. Reapz. He finished the season with 112 takeaways, as well as being a dominant forward for the majority of the season (finishing 4th in league scoring with 129 points in 36 games). Reapz showed that you can be an explosive forward on one end but be a pain in the a** on the other. This was Reapz 4th Selke of his SPNHL career, and his first Selke since Season 29.
Season 34 Norris Memorial Winner: Royalkc85
Royal came into this season as a fairly underrated offensive defenseman. He has now won 2 cups in his 2 seasons of SP (Season 31 / 34). To go along with that is a ridiculous stat line he put up with the Dallas Stars in the regular season. This season in 28 games Royal scored 2 goals and racked up 50 assists for 52 points in 28 games as a DEFENSEMAN 20 points more than the next defenseman. He also was a +68 on the season. He had a 1.85 PPG average. He also finished with the 2nd most takeaways by a defenseman in the league this season with 94, following only Malf on that front (who had 102). Goes to show that Royal can get it done offensively, but also is a standup lock down D man in his own right as well. Will be interesting to see where he goes from here. Great season Royal.
Season 34 Vezina Trophy Winner: chadkillz134
Going into this season, Chad was on a mission one could say. Having won the Vezina as the best goalie the past 2 seasons, was tied for the record held by league owner SA_Pliskin who had, on 2 prior instances won this award back to back seasons (Seasons 1 / 2, 16 / 17), as well as Montoni won had won it in back to back seasons (seasons 23 / 24). But never had a goalie obtained the proverbial Hat-Trick. He had some competition however this season, as it wasn’t a blowout like some may have thought it would be. Chad and Kamakaz were neck and neck all season stats wise in net, no real other challenge to these 2 were had. Chad finished the season with a 33-6 record in 39 games, a GAA of 2.28 and a SV% of 0.841 and 1 Shutout. Kamakaz finished the season with a 21-3 record in 24 games, with a GAA of 2.13 and a SV% of 0.830 and 4 Shutouts. This was a neck and neck race as mentioned earlier, but in the end it came down to games played, and seeing as the numbers were close even with the extra 15 games played, it tilted the award in Chad’s favor. Making him the first goalie in SPNHL history to 3 peat for Vezina.
Can he make it 4 in a row? Only time will tell.
Season 34 Hart Memorial Winner: Iam_mrbean
HEY LOOK! BEAN AGAIN! There really shouldn’t be a surprise here with this one, being that he led the league in goals, and points, was on the cup winning team, really the only thing that you could say would have been a stopping factor in him not winning this award was that Cup was 4 points back on a team that won the presidents trophy. But Bean did it again, and finished with a whopping 6 GWGs, where as, Cup had 1. On a team that was as good all around as Dallas was, Bean, Chad or Royal could have won this award. But in the end, with the season Bean had stat wise, especially compared to every other points winner in league history. He deserved this one. This is Bean’s 2nd Hart Memorial award in a row, moving him even with LaPlante94 (seasons 5/6), and Skinner (seasons 24/25), as the only 3 players in SPNHL him history to win the Hart Memorial 2 years in a row.
Can he break this record and win his 3rd in a row in Season 35? Coming soon to an SPNHL near you 😉