Sorry I'm late to the party everyone. 2-week vacation got me busy before and after.
Also was waiting out playoffs a bit and letting more stats accumulate from players, so didn't do it right away for that reason.
I think my picks will be pretty redundant, but here goes:
The Gordie Howe Award (most active on the board) &
I want to say Anthony made the most trades this season, and definitely lifted his team up a ton from last season. Always good input on various things as well, and he also responds promptly to any private messages as well which is always a nice thing!
Cory's write-ups are always a great read (and laugh), so he gets props for that alone, but he's always giving solid feedback and input on top of those rankings and write-ups.
The Ken Holland Award (most outstanding GM) There are a lot of contenders for this one. I don't think I am a good candidate but thanks to those who voted for me. I made all my moves in previous years, and didn't really have to tinker with this roster too much this year.
PIT was a beast this season and the record reflects that. Also made a couple of great moves to go all-in this year while sacrificing some of that solid future talent to do so (something I wasn't willing to do). Unfortunately didn't work out, but still had the balls to make those moves for rental-type players. Also hit gold in acquiring Jake Guentzel for James Neal and getting money paid on Jake too.
The Wayne Gretzky Award (team w/ best centers) Like mostly everyone... Mack, Pointer and Segs is a deadly trio. Segs is the "worst" at 8th overall currently. Not much else to say.
The Brendan Shanahan Award (team w/ best left wings) PIT gets this one by a slim margin, due to Johnny and Jake being in the top 7 currently, with Gus as the 3rd. STL was close with Drai, Huby and Conner, but I like the trio of Gaudreau, Guentz and Nyq better.
The Jaromir Jagr Award (team w/ best right wings) If Boeser is healthy all season (and Pasta for that matter), I think I would take this one. But looking at the stats, and technically counting Guentzel as RW this year, I give this one to PIT.
Guentzel, Lindholm and Atkinson as the top-3, and if Guentzel is starting at LW, then there's also Phil the Thrill to slot in.
The Bobby Orr Award (team w/ best defensemen) Wow. Well with PIT making the list again, no wonder they were tops in our league. Of course this was a toss-up with STL being right there, but I give the nod to PIT with the top end guys being that much better. If STL's guys are healthy though, they could potentially have had 5 guys in the top-10. Weber would be for sure and Chabot would be close. McDonaugh having a career season boosts STL as well...but also looking at his career stats, damn what a player. Never worse than plus-8 in a season and he's matching up against top lines of the opponent. Respect. I still give the nod to PIT though overall for this award.
The Dominik Hasek Award (team w/ best goalies) Didn't really think I was that far ahead of the pack here, but the stats don't lie I guess. I didn't think Markstrom would do as well as he has this year, and that's coming from a Canucks fan. But maybe the former "best prospect goalie in the world" has finally found his game.
Jones' stats are horrible (close to a 3 GAA, yikes) and is quite possibly the worst starter in the NHL who played more than 55 games. But I'll still take him as a 3rd string goalie I suppose.
-The Bad Juju Award (most unluckiest team)
and
Jeez. Top-2 teams in the regular season don't make the finals. Top scoring team doesn't make it out of Round 1 of playoffs. Terrible injury timing for both teams in playoffs.
But hey, such is the world of fantasy playoffs. Any team can beat any team on a given week. Still sucks for both top scoring teams, losing to a 27-17 team though, haha. I feel like Snug should win the Finals, just so he can say he beat the top-3 scoring teams on the way to the title, while on his way out of the league!