|
|
Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, puckheads and Zamboni drivers, checkers and scorers, fans of neutral-zone traps and fans of run-and-gun! Welcome one and all to the 2004 RBTN Fantasy Hockey Awards!
The 2003-04 campaign was another "great" season for fantasy hockey. We were able to enjoy more 2-1 and 1-0 games than the fans of the MLS do. Fantasy owners sat idly by as superstar after superstar got injured. And while we were having all this fun running our fantasy hockey teams and leading them to Fantasy Cups, the dark cloud of possibly not having any hockey to look forward to next season hung over our heads, thanks to the threat of a possible strike/lockout.
But no matter. It is time to celebrate the best and worst, the most positive
and most negative in fantasy hockey from the past season. So without further
adieu, here are your 2004 RBTN Award winners, voted on by you, the fantasy hockey
owners of the world!
GOALTENDER OF THE YEAR - Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary Flames:
I am going to go out on a limb and say that Kiprusoff went undrafted in most fantasy leagues. His 2002-03 season consisted of "Kipper" going 5-14-0 with a 3.25 goals against average and an .879 save percentage. A spaghetti strainer could have stopped more pucks than he did last season for San Jose.
So when the goalmouth got crowded this season in San Jose, the fantasy hockey world was not shocked when Kiprusoff was dealt to Calgary for a draft choice. But what did shock the fantasy world was how amazing Kiprusoff played once he put the uniform with the flaming 'C' over his body. He suddenly became a combination of Grant Fuhr, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy, and he finished leading the NHL with a 1.70 GAA and a .933 SP. Kiprusoff was not only the best goalie in fantasy pucks, he was the most valuable player picked up on waivers in most leagues.
Runner-up: Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils.
DEFENSEMAN OF THE YEAR - Scott Niedermayer, New Jersey Devils:
Who would have guessed that Scott Stevens would have made waves in fantasy hockey this season? More so, who would have guessed Stevens would make waves when he was not even on the ice?
With Stevens missing the majority of the season because of post-concussion syndrome, Niedermayer stepped up his ice time and had the best offensive season of his career since the 1997-98 season. He helped fantasy owners in every category imaginable, ending up tied for second among defensemen with 54 points, while also scoring nine power-play goals and being a plus-20. Most fantasy pundits would have thought Brian Rafalski would have been the Devil defenseman to put up those kind of numbers.
Runner-up: Sergei Gonchar, Boston Bruins.
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Rick Nash, Columbus Blue Jackets:
Sure, Nash was a minus-35 this season, but plus-minus is a silly little category, isn't it? What fantasy owners care more about are players who put the biscuit in the basket, and nobody did a better job of doing that than Nash this season. After scoring 17 goals in his rookie season, this scintillating sophomore tied Jarome Iginla and Ilya Kovalchuk for the league-lead in goals with 41 and topped all skaters with 19 power-play tallies. I guess we now know why he was the first pick overall in the 2002 draft.
Runner-up: David Aebischer, Colorado Avalanche.
COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Sheldon Souray, Montreal Candiens:
Some may say, comeback player of the year? What did Souray come back from? Souray was as obscure as obscure gets in terms of fantasy hockey. He had never scored more than three goals in any season in his career, had scored 13 goals total since joining the NHL in 1997, and was known for being a journeyman defensive defenseman who had missed the entire 2002-03 season because of numerous wrist surgeries.
But wrist surgery seemed to do wonders for Souray's blasts from the point. All of a sudden Souray was shooting like a lefthanded Al MacInnis this season. He led defensemen for a good part of the year in goals and finished with 15 goals and 20 assists in 63 games, with a knee injury costing him 19 contests and maybe the Defenseman of the Year trophy.
Runner-up: Chris Pronger, St. Louis Blues.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Andrew Raycroft, Boston Bruins:
Fantasy owners had seen little flashes of Raycroft here and there in the past, but this season was when Raycroft really shined and took the fantasy hockey universe by storm. Given a chance to be a full-time starter after Felix Potvin fizzled in the early going, Raycroft stood on his head some nights and was solid almost every night in going 29-18-9 with a 2.05 GAA and .926 SP. If this is what he can do as a rookie, imagine how superb he will be three years from now.
Runner-up: Marek Zidlicky, Nashville Predators.
THANKS FOR NOTHING AWARD - Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim:
Everyone wanted to get jiggy with "Jiggy" last season. He was the toast of the town, the MVP of the playoffs and a godsend to fantasy owners after a superlative regular season. So naturally he was drafted very high in virtually every fantasy league at the beginning of this season. Wow, big mistake!
Giguere brought a new meaning to the word "sieve." He went 17-31-6 with a 2.62 GAA on a team that was not that terrible defensively. He just could not get in a groove and stay in it for more than a week at a time all season long. A worse indictment of Giguere's poor play is that backup Martin Gerber went 11-12-4 with a 2.26 GAA with the same squad playing in front of him. Thanks, indeed.
Runner-up: Mike Modano, Dallas Stars.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER - Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning:
This was the one award of the eight being handed out where the voting was not even close. On Day One of the tabulating, St. Louis had the trophy wrapped up, and why shouldn't he have? The little guy led the NHL with 94 points and eight shorthanded goals and was tied for the league lead with 56 assists and a plus-35 rating.
After a small scoring slump at the start of the season, St. Louis was the best player in fantasy hockey the rest of the way, and he proved he was durable by playing in every Tampa Bay game, and that he could make the others around him better, helping guys like Pavel Kubina, Fredrik Modin and Vincent Lecavalier have seasons their fantasy owners had to be exhilarated about. Sounds like an MVP to me.
Runner-up: Ilya Kovalchuk, Atlanta Thrashers.
JASON ALLISON AWARD - Dominik Hasek, Detroit Red Wings:
Ah, the granddaddy of them all. The only award that gets named after the winner of it for the entire following season when the weekly edition of the award gets handed out in my column. Many people e-mailed me and said that Allison should not be forced to relinquish his crown since he missed the entire season with more concussion-related problems, but Hasek caused the anguish of more fantasy hockey owners this season.
The only thing "The Dominator" dominated this season was the injured list. He played a whole 14 games before going down with a mysterious groin injury that no doctor seemed to be able to put a finger on. The soap opera went on, as Hasek went from being day-to-day to being week-to-week to being out indefinitely to being ready to return ASAP.
Then Hasek announced he was shutting himself down for the remainder of the season because his groin just was not right. Hasek had groin surgery just last week (why did he wait so long?). Coming back to the NHL in poor condition probably led to Hasek hurting himself and hurting the millions of fantasy owners who hung their hopes on his acrobatic saves. He most likely will not be back next season, and I think I echo the sentiments of fantasy owners of his by saying this - good riddance.
Runner-up: Peter Forsberg, Colorado Avalanche.
Thank you very much for reading my column throughout the hockey season. If everything breaks right with the owners and the players, hopefully there will be a column next season for you to read. Enjoy the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs! C-Ya!