Art Ross Trophy
Awarded to the player who leads the league in total points.
Tim Connolly
Buffalo Sabres (Zak)Tim Connolly led the league in total points for Zak, and this is one of 4 trophies that he (Connolly) won this year.
Maurice "Rocket" Richard Award
Awarded to the player who leads the league in goals.
Tim Connolly
Buffalo Sabres (Zak)Wayne Gretzky Award
(This is one of mine) Awarded to the player who leads the league in assists. Hey, he was the greatest player of all-time...a living legend. The least that the NHL can do is name an award for him, right?
Maxim Affinogenov
Buffalo Sabres (Zak)Hart Memorial Trophy
Awarded to the league's Most Valuable Player.
Tim Connolly
Buffalo Sabres (Zak)Connolly again...yawn.
James Norris Memorial Trophy
Awarded to the league's top defenseman.
Lubomir Visnovsky
Philadelphia Flyers (Amy)Now that's what I like to see...a new GM comes into the league, and takes one of the main trophies. Here's Amy showing her true drafting-genius, as Visnovsky was the 1st overall draft pick.
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
Awarded to the player who most exhibits the qualities of sportsmanship and gentlemanly play.
Vyachaslev Kozlov
Atlanta Thrashers (cpu)
Calder Memorial Trophy
Rookie Of The Year.
Mikhail Grabovski
Montreal Canadiens (cpu)
Conn Smythe Trophy
Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs.
Olli Jokinen
St.Louis Blues (Joel)
Again, this is the award that I complain about every year. It seems that without fail, this game always picks the goaltenders as the Conn Smythe winners. But, that seems to be something that was actually fixed in NHL08. This year, I kept close track of who the stars of the game were, so that I could have a more-logical approach to my yearly commissioner-intervention when it comes to the Conn Smythe. This year though, the game got it right, and gave it to Jokinen.
The Claude Lemieux Award
Awarded to the player whose lackluster performance during the regular season is over-shadowed by doing a complete 180 in the playoffs.
Chris Drury
New York Rangers
This award is derived from Claude Lemieux's season in 1994-95, while playing for the New Jersey Devils. Lemieux was injured for half of the season, playing in only 45 games and scoring 6 goals and 13 assists. He followed that up by leading the Devils to the '95 Stanley Cup, by scoring (in 20 games) 13 goals and 3 assists. Yep, that's more than double the goals, in less than half of the amount of games.
This award was the brain-child of Rick and I. Ever since '95, whenever we'd see a low-level (or unheard of) player having an unexpected playoff-season, we'd say things like "that guy's totally pulling a 'Claude Lemieux'". And at some point last year, I thought "hey, that'd make a pretty cool award". Rick agreed, so here it is.
Although Chris Drury didn't really have a "lackluster" performance during the season, but his playoff performance was just spectacular. In 22 playoff games he scored 35 goals, as opposed to the 29 that he had scored in the previous 82 games. Defintely a 180, and worth this award.
Vezina Trophy
Best goaltender in the league.
Mikka Kiprusoff
Calgary Flames (Dan Welz)
William M. Jennings Trophy
Awarded to the goaltender(s) who play(s) for the team that allows the least amount of goals during the regular season.
Mikka Kiprusoff
Calgary Flames (Dan Welz)
Dan really did a bang-up job in picking the Flames, once his normal team-draft gameplan (of choosing the Sharks) was shot-to-hell.
Bill Masterson Trophy
Awarded to the player who best-exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.
Mats Sundin
Toronto Maple LeafsThis is one of those weird awards that doesn't have much to do with stats, so the computer just picks it. This year, the computer must have taken pity on me for being the first human player (in our league's history) to not make the playoffs, that it decided to give this to my top scorer. Yay.
Jack Adams Trophy
Awarded to the Coach who is judged to have contributed most to his team's success.
Mike Kitchen
St.Louis Blues (Joel)In addition to his other exploits, Joel wraps-up this award for the 3rd time.
Zak Mayer Award
Awarded to the General Manager who is judged to have contributed most to his team's success.
Scott Javoroski
San Jose Sharks (Scott)I've already mentioned all of this, so I'll be brief. Scott put together the winningest season in our league's history, and also one that's better than the winningest NHL team ever (the Red Wings...'97, I think). Definitely worth this award.
Frank J. Selke Trophy
Awarded to the top defensive forward.
Ryan Smyth
St.Louis Blues (Joel)Lester B. Pearson Award
Awarded to the league's most-outstanding player, as decided by the NHLPA.
Tim Connolly
Buffalo Sabres (Zak)Connolly strikes again!
Presidents' Trophy
Awarded to the team that has the best regular-season record.
San Jose Sharks (Scott)Clarence S. Campbell Trophy
Awarded to the team that advances to the Stanley Cup Finals as the Western Conference Champion.
St.Louis Blues (Joel)Price Of Wales Trophy
Awarded to the team that advances to the Stanley Cup Finals as the Eastern Conference Champion.
New York Rangers
Lord Stanley's Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup
Awarded to the team that emerges as the victor of the playoffs.
St.Louis Blues (Joel)The Point Brewery Memorial Cup
Awarded to the winningest human-controlled-team at the end of the playoffs.
St.Louis Blues (Joel)