Vancouver Canucks Team Awards: How Did We Do?
The Vancouver Canucks handed out their team awards prior to their last game — which players won?
The Vancouver Canucks handed out their team awards for the 2015-16 season on April 9th.
A few days prior, a few writers here at The Canuck Way made some predictions for who would win awards. Let’s see how we did.
Cyclone Taylor Award — MVP
Winner: Daniel Sedin
Who Got it Right? Everyone… except David Joun.
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Daniel Sedin led the Canucks in scoring for the fifth time in the last ten years — which won him the Cyrus H. MacLean trophy for leading scorer as well. Daniel and Henrik Sedin have each led the Canucks in scoring five of the last ten years.
Without Daniel’s goals, a Vancouver Canucks team that struggled offensively all season would be in even more trouble. Daniel did not miss a single game in the 2015-16 campaign and had 28 goals and 33 assists for 61 points.
Walter “Babe” Pratt Award — Best Defenseman
Winner: Ben Hutton
Who Got it Right? David Joun, Sarah Laug.
The accolades just keep coming for rookie Ben Hutton. The dancing, lip-syncing 22-year-old smilebot was considered a long shot to make the Vancouver Canucks before training camp began.
But he did make the team and he never looked back.
Ben Hutton led all Canucks’ defensemen in scoring, managing only one goal but assisting on 24 others.
Pavel Bure Award — Most Exciting Player
Winner: Bo Horvat
Who Got it Right? Well, shucks. No one!
Our three picks were Daniel Sedin, Jannik Hansen, and Sven Baertschi. At the time we made our predictions, this trio were the top-three goal scorers.
It was also around this time that Horvat proceeded to score three goals, six points in his final five games to leapfrog Baertschi into third place.
We had the right idea by picking goal scorers; we just didn’t count on Horvat being the Canucks’ most dominant scoring forward in their final few games.
Perhaps we should have known better, as Horvat has shown he has some offensive flair:
Fred J. Hume Award — Unsung Hero
Winner: Jannik Hansen
Who Got it Right: Once again, no one!
To be fair, I thought Jannik Hansen should win an award for his 22-goal campaign; I just didn’t think it should be this award.
This marks the third time in his career Hansen has won the award. After three awards, how “unsung” can he be? Oh well.
Many veteran players had disappointing years — Alexandre Burrows, Chris Higgins and Brandon Prust, for example — but Jannik Hansen had his best goal total ever, while continuing to be an effective forechecker and penalty-killer. The Dane had 22 goals and 38 points in 67 games this season.
Next: Five Takeaways from the Year-End Press Conference
Perhaps Hansen still is not getting the credit he deserves.
Congratulation to all the award-winners on fantastic seasons!