The Canucks have opened up the fan voting for their team awards, but there’s little suspense for how the awards will go this year.
Let’s face it, Brock Boeser is a shoo-in for pretty much all of the Canucks team awards. Barring a strong run from Daniel Sedin to end the year, he’ll finish as the team’s leading scorer, so he’ll get the Cyrus H. McLean Trophy by default. If he doesn’t lead the team in post-game three star selections, the basis for the Molson Cup, he bloody well should.
That leaves the four fan-voted awards. He’ll definitely win the Cyclone Taylor Trophy as the Canucks’ MVP, he’s absolutely going to win the Pavel Bure Most Exciting Player Award, and there’s an argument to be made that he should win the Fred J. Hume Award as the unsung hero, simply because the amount of praise he’s been given still isn’t enough for how important he’s been to the team.
Heck, give him the Babe Pratt Trophy as the team’s best defenceman too. Why not?
Because Brock Boeser has been so obviously better than anyone else on the Canucks this season, it takes a lot of the drama out of the team awards. So, instead of taking out the drama, I’m taking out Boeser. Without Boeser, who deserves to win each of these awards?
Cyclone Taylor Trophy - Bo Horvat
Most Valuable Player
Bo Horvat is the defending champion for the Cyclone Taylor Trophy after leading the team in scoring last season. If it wasn’t for a mid-season injury and Brock Boeser rocketing up to 29 goals and 55 points in 60 games, Horvat would once again be a lock as the Canucks’ MVP.
Horvat is first among Canucks forwards in ice time, playing big minutes in all situations. Despite missing 18 games to injury, he’s taken by far the most faceoffs for the Canucks with 1212 and leads the team with a 53.6% success rate.
Most importantly, Horvat is behind only Boeser in 5-on-5 points per hour and has the second best 5-on-5 goal differential — plus-4 — also just behind Boeser. His nine power play goals are second only to Boeser’s 10 and his 20 goals overall are third on the team behind Boeser and Daniel Sedin.
Horvat makes everyone he plays with better and continues to impress with his ability to consistently improve season after season. He is the Canucks’ 2017-18 MVP (except for Brock Boeser).
Babe Pratt Trophy - Alex Edler
Best Canucks Defenceman
This hasn’t been a banner year for Canucks’ defencemen, but Alex Edler has been the best of the bunch, particularly given how much time Chris Tanev has missed due to injury.
Edler leads the Canucks in ice time per game, averaging just under 24 minutes. He eats up minutes at even-strength and leads all Canucks’ defencemen in shorthanded and power play ice time.
After a couple lower-scoring seasons, Edler reached 30 points this season for the sixth time in his career, setting a franchise record for points from a defenceman in the process. He’s fifth on the team in points, which unsurprisingly leads all Canucks’ defencemen.
A resurgent power play has certainly helped — 13 of his 30 points have come on the power play — and that can be credited to Brock Boeser’s emergence as a scoring threat with the man advantage, but Edler’s steady presence at the point on the power play has been underrated, in my opinion.
Edler faces the toughest competition night-in and night-out — a thankless role on a team that ha struggled as much as the Canucks have this season — so he should get a little bit of thanks now. Frankly, no other defenceman on the Canucks deserves it this season. Alex Edler is the best Canucks defenceman (apart from Brock Boeser, if he played defence).
Fred J. Hume Award - Daniel Sedin
The Unsung Hero
Otherwise known as the Jannik Hansen Award for winning it in three separate years. Apparently his praises stopped being sung every second year.
This award is one of the more contentious awards, as how do you decide how “sung” a hero a player has to be before he’s ineligible? Have we praised Bo Horvat enough? Are the Sedins getting enough credit for continuing to produce at a second-line rate at the age of 37? Do people understand just how vital a healthy Chris Tanev was to the Canucks’ defence this season?
Some of the players that I might have given the award to simply didn’t play enough this season. I think Brendan Gaunce deserves some credit for having the lowest rate of goals against on the Canucks despite his NHL-low offensive zone start percentage. Chris Tanev’s injuries probably should illustrate exactly why he deserves this award.
So, I’m going to give it to Daniel Sedin. The Sedins got enough criticism this year to make them legitimately unsung, and Daniel is second on the team in goal-scoring behind Brock Boeser, second in primary points, also behind Brock Boeser, and second in total points, unsurprisingly behind Brock Boeser.
He’s also second in power play points (behind Brock Boeser) and second in total shots on goal, behind Brock Boeser, of course.
Add all that up, and you have the Canucks unsung hero (aside from Brock Boeser).
Pavel Bure Most Exciting Player Award - Thomas Vanek
Y’know, the most exciting player
This is such a weird award, because “exciting” is such a subjective word. Neither Sedin, for example, have ever won the award, despite plenty of exciting plays in their ouvre. Meanwhile, David Booth and Zack Kassian both won it.
Of late, the award has gone to the player most likely to get breakaways or make a power move to the net, the type of solo efforts that get fans out of their seats. Which is fair enough, but there are other types of excitement.
I’m tempted to cheat and give the award to Elias Pettersson, because no one other than Brock Boeser was truly exciting on the Canucks this season, but watching Pettersson’s point totals and highlight reel expand was thoroughly thrilling. But let’s keep it to roster players only.
This might be odd, but I’m giving the award to Thomas Vanek. Even though he’s not a current member of the Canucks, his devil-may-care slapshots on breakaways and savvy setups were certainly exciting.
If you include Vanek’s time with the Canucks, he’s second on the team in points-per-hour in all situations and actually first in points-per-hour at 5-on-5, ahead of Brock Boeser. He’s also the only Canuck other than Boeser to get a hat trick this season, which is a pretty exciting moment.
So I’m naming Thomas Vanek the Canucks’ most exciting player (other than Brock Boeser).
Agree? Disagree? Sound off in the comments. Who (other than Brock Boeser) should win the Canucks’ team awards?
