An insane five players and two members of the coaching staff are nominated. Jonathan Huberdeau is nominated for three awards while Simon Despres, Zack Phillips, Nathan Beaulieu, and Michael Kirkpatrick are all in contention as well. Head coach Gerard Gallant and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly are also included in the long list of nominees.
That’s a lot of people nominated for a lot of awards. But it can’t be all that surprising given that the Sea Dogs have sat atop the QMJHL standings nearly all year and were ranked No. 1 in the entire Canadian Hockey League for much of the season.
Along with all of the individual honours, Saint John also won the Jean Rougeau Trophy as regular season champions for the second straight year, the and Luc Robitaille Trophy as the best offensive team for the second straight season, and also claimed the Robert Lebel Trophy for the first time in club history as the team with the best goals-against-average. These three awards will be presented this Friday at Harbour Station as part of a pre-game presentation prior to Game One of the President’s Cup Playoffs opening round against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
The Golden Puck Awards will be held April 6 in downtown Montreal, the day before the 2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup host is announced.
Now, to the nominees:
Let’s start with the big one – the Michel Brière Trophy for the league’s Most Valuable Player. For the second straight year, a Sea Dogs forward as been nominated in rising star Jonathan Huberdeau. The 17-year old finished the year with 105 points which placed him third in league scoring. Mike Hoffman won the award last year as a 20-year old.
Other nominees include QMJHL scoring champion Philip-Michael Devos of the Gatineau Olympiques and Sean Couturier of the Drummondville Voltigeurs.
Huberdeau was also nominated for the Michael Bossy Trophy as the league’s top prospect for the upcoming National Hockey League Entry Draft. Also nominated was teammate Nathan Beaulieu who finished the year seventh in team scoring with 45 points was a plus-44 on the year. The offensive defenseman remains a projected first round pick this June.
The third nominee was none other than Couturier.
Lastly, Huberdeau was nominated for the Paul Dumont Trophy which is awarded to the “personality of the year.” Also nominated was, not surprisingly, Couturier along with his Team Canada teammate Louis Leblanc from the Montreal Juniors.
Speaking of Canada’s World Junior team, Simon Despres was nominated for the Émile ‘Butch’ Bouchard Trophy as the league’s top defenseman. The ‘Big Horse’ only played in 47 games this year after missing a lengthy amount of time at Pittsburgh Penguins training camp and at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Despres still had a great and dominating season in Saint John, though, scoring 13 goals and 41 points.
Other nominess for top defenseman include Moncton Wildcat Brandon Gormley and the Shawinigan Cataractes’ offensive beast Ryan Kavanagh.
Michael Kirkpatrick was nominated for the Guy Carbonneau Trophy as the top defensive forward. The Sea Dogs’ all-time leading scorer had 82 points and a plus-47 rating this season. Other players nominated were Victoriaville’s Philip Danault and Quebec’s Frederick Roy.
This award could be presented Friday apparently. From a QMJHL press release:
Please note that the following trophies will be awarded at a special pre-game ceremony on Friday, March 25th or Tuesday, March 29th: Michel-Bergeron (offensive rookie of the year), Raymond-Lagacé (defensive rookie of the year), Guy-Carbonneau (best defensive forward), Kevin-Lowe (best defensive defenseman), Robert-Lebel (best goals-against-average - team), Jean-Rougeau (regular season champions) and Luc-Robitaille (best offensive team).The fifth Saint John player nominated was Zack Phillips. The Fredericton native was nominated for the Frank J. Selke Trophy as sportsman of the year. Phillips had a tremendous season, registering 95 points and only 16 penalty minutes in 67 games.
Also nominate was Devos and Acadie-Bathurst Titan rookie Zach O’Brien. In 58 games, O’Brien did not record a single penalty minute.
Behind the bench, head coach Gerard Gallant was nominated for the Ron Lapointe Trophy as coach of the year. Gallant led the young Sea Dogs to a second straight regular season crown and deserves a ton of credit for keeping this team focused on winning and not on draft rankings.
‘Turk’ won the award last season as well in his first year behind a Quebec League bench. Gallant was later awarded CHL Coach of the Year honours.
The other nominees are Mario Duhamel from the Voltigeurs and Patrick Roy from the Quebec Remparts.
Finally, Sea Dogs associate coach and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly was nominated for the Maurice Filion Trophy as General Manager of the Year. Kelly was able to put his own stamp on this team this season and did so in fine fashion. Kelly made a few key acquisitions at the deadline that included picking up defensemen Eric Gelinas and Jason Seed along with forward Alexandre Beauregard and goaltender Mathieu Corbeil.
The other nominees are Sylvain Couturier of the Titan and Pascal Vincent of the Juniors.
Here is a full list of nominees from the QMJHL release:
Michel-Brière Trophy - Most Valuable PlayerThe John Horman (Executive of the Year) and Jean Sawyer (Marketing Director of the Year) trophies will be awarded at the Annual Entry Draft. The finalists will be revealed at a later date.
Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Philip-Michaël Devos - Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres
Jonathan Huberdeau - Saint John Sea Dogs
RDS Cup - Rookie of the Year
Martin Frk - Halifax Mooseheads
Charles Hudon - Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Zach O’Brien - Acadie-Bathurst Titan
Domenic Graham - Drummondville Voltigeurs
David Honzik - Victoriaville Tigres
Dominic Poulin - Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Émile 'Butch' Bouchard Trophy - Best Defenseman
Brandon Gormley - Moncton Wildcats
Simon Després - Saint John Sea Dogs
Ryan Kavanagh - Shawinigan Cataractes / Rimouski Océanic
Frank-J.-Selke Trophy - Sportsman of the Year
Philip-Michaël Devos - Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres
Zach O’Brien - Acadie-Bathurst Titan
Zack Phillips - Saint John Sea Dogs
Michael-Bossy Trophy - Top Professional Prospect
Nathan Beaulieu - Saint John Sea Dogs
Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Jonathan Huberdeau - Saint John Sea Dogs
Marcel-Robert Trophy - TELUS Scholastic Player of the Year
Pascal Amyot - Halifax Mooseheads
Michaël Bournival - Shawinigan Cataractes
Guillaume Goulet - Victoriaville Tigres
Jean-Philippe Mathieu - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Nicolas Therrien - Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Ron-Lapointe Trophy - Coach of the Year
Mario Duhamel - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Gérard Gallant - Saint John Sea Dogs
Patrick Roy - Québec Remparts
Maurice-Filion Trophy - General Manager of the Year
Sylvain Couturier - Acadie-Bathurst Titan
Mike Kelly - Saint John Sea Dogs
Pascal Vincent - Montreal Juniors
Paul-Dumont Trophy – Personality of the year
Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Jonathan Huberdeau - Saint John Sea Dogs
Louis Leblanc - Montreal Junior
Humanitarian Award
Alex Émond - Rimouski Océanic
Kirill Kabanov - Lewiston MAINEiacs
Gabriel Lemieux - Shawinigan Cataractes
Michel-Bergeron Trophy - Offensive Rookie of the Year
Martin Frk - Halifax Mooseheads
Charles Hudon - Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Zach O’Brien - Acadie-Bathurst Titan
Raymond-Lagacé Trophy - Defensive rookie of the year
Domenic Graham - Drummondville Voltigeurs
David Honzik - Victoriaville Tigres
Dominic Poulin - Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Guy-Carbonneau Trophy - Best defensive forward
Michael Kirkpatrick - Saint John Sea Dogs
Phillip Danault - Victoriaville Tigres
Frédérick Roy - Québec Remparts
Kevin-Lowe Trophy - Best defensive defenseman
Samuel Finn - Lewiston MAINEiacs
Charles Landry - Montreal Junior
Andrew Randazzo - Drummondville Voltigeurs
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