Seven awards were presented during the Olds Grizzlys' awards banquet and two players got two of those awards each.
Duncan Hughes was named Most Valuable Player and Noah Kimmel won the Player's Choice Top Teammate award. Also, they both shared Community Player of the Year honours during the event, held Feb. 15 at the Pomeroy Inn & Suites.
Kaiden Kanderka received the President's Award. Hunter Floris was named Rookie of the Year. The Defenceman of the Year is Joel Shoemaker. Josh McNeil was named Most Dedicated Player.
Head coach and general manager Joe Murphy noted most of the awards were voted on by the players themselves as well as by management.
"I'm happy to say they got it right," he said.
Grizzlys president Darcy Dallas introduced the President's Award.
"I have a type of player that I like and really enjoy watch play," he said. "He hasn't scored the most goals, but he's played in every game — well, I shouldn't say every game — but every game he plays in he's extremely good as far as what he brings.
"He brings a work ethic, a style of play that I love — hard hitting, tough to play against. And every shift he plays really well.
"He's probably the only player who was suspended more than myself," Dallas added, sparking some laughter.
As he presented the Rookie of the Year award, Murphy spurred a bit of laughter by noting that was "a broad category for our group. We have a lot of them."
"Actually when we had to make the decision to move on with some veteran players, this player came to us and he has grown and continued to do proper junior A habits," Murphy said. "He has found a bit of a scoring touch late in the year.
Murphy said Defenceman of the Year category was "a tight race."
"Again, a good young player came to us last year. We committed to him early. He's grown, he's learning how to do things fast, he's a good player. He's got a great future, " Murphy said.
When it came time to present the Most Dedicated Player award, Murphy said, "dedication is a lot of things. It's effort, it's being a great teammate, it's battling through hard stuff, it's failing and getting yourself back up.
"One of the things that the coach always appreciates is — on some level, it makes more work for your coaches — but when they ask for extra video; 'how can I be better?' That kind of thing. It shows the coach that you want to learn, you want to develop, you're OK with failing."
Murphy, a Grizzlys alumnus, said over the years, the team has done a good job of getting players to help out in the community.
"I'm happy to say that when the text comes through from Joe to go to a community event, there's no shortage of guys who are volunteering for it. So I'm proud of the fact that the guys are all on board for that.
"One of the guys who never said 'no,' in fact I leaned on him to organize a lot of it, is one of the co-winners tonight," he added.
"The other player also did those things, but he took it upon himself to spend time at schools and didn't wait for anybody else to help out in the community, which is a pretty cool thing."
Perhaps the most unique looking trophy was the Player's Choice Top Teammate award, which depicts the head of a big Grizzly bear.
"We wanted to bring a top teammate player's choice award back to the group this year because I'm a big believer in being a good teammate and supporting your guys through. If someone needs to be heavy it needs to be me, but your teammates always got your back and they'll scrap for you," Murphy said.
He said Kimmel was a "very clear" winner of that award this year.
That brought the ceremony to the last award of the night: Most Valuable Player.
"We're a young group that's scrapping every night and there's been so many bright spots from a coach's perspective in terms of how guys are growing. But again, we asked the guys to vote on this one and again, there was a very clear winner," Murphy said as he presented the MVP award to Hughes.
Before the awards were handed out, Dallas indicated it had been a tough year for the Grizzlys in the wins and losses column.
Murphy conceded that fact, but said that hadn't deterred him.
"He was saying it was a hard year and I probably wasn't having much fun. I'm having the time of my life. As challenging as the wins and losses have been and seeing the guys' disappointment at day's end sometimes, this is the best job in the world; thank you for allowing me to do it," Murphy said, sparking loud applause.
