OHL Coaches Poll - My Ballot (2017)

Sometime in the next two weeks, the OHL will release the results of their annual Coaches Poll, where the league's bench bosses vote on a number of categories within their own Conference. As is the annual tradition, below you can find my own opinion on how the results should look.

One thing worth noting though. OHL teams are only allowed to submit the name of one player per category for the ballot, thus on the results you won't notice any teams having more than one player per category. On my ballot, you'll see that I don't follow that rule (and never have), as the intention of this from my end is to highlight the very best of the league without that restriction. So this works as both a prediction, and also a fake ballot if I were indeed an OHL coach (which I am obviously not).

It goes without saying that these are not the results and below is strictly my opinion. As mentioned, the results should be released this week or next.

One last thing. The Western Conference is so loaded with talent, a lot of these categories were really hard to trim down. Some of the guys that I haven't even listed in the West, might have been listed 2nd/3rd in categories of the East. The Western Conference is just that deep. So if your favourite player isn't listed...my apologies.

Most Underrated Player:

Eastern Conference
1. Matthew Timms
2. Domenic Commisso
3. Jason Robertson & Steve Harland

Western Conference
1. Petrus Palmu
2. Brandon Crawley
3. Nicholas Caamano

Most Improved Player:

Eastern Conference
1. Dylan Wells
2. Ryan Mantha
3. Dmitri Sokolov & Stephen Dhillon

Western Conference
1. Nick Suzuki, Jonah Gadjovich, & Kevin Hancock
2. Kole Sherwood & Ryan Moore
3. Conor Timmins

Smartest Player:

Eastern Conference
1. Spencer Watson
2. Steven Lorentz
3. Matthew Strome & Brett McKenzie

Western Conference
1. Taylor Raddysh
2. Petrus Palmu
3. Gabriel Vilardi, Dylan Strome & Janne Kuokkanen

Hardest Worker:

Eastern Conference
1. Michael McLeod
2. Jonathan Ang
3. Macauley Carson & Brett McKenzie

Western Conference
1. Alex Debrincat
2. Boris Katchouk
3. Jonah Gadjovich & Nick Suzuki

Best Playmaker:

Eastern Conference
1. Michael McLeod
2. Spencer Watson
3. Artur Tyanulin

Western Conference
1. Dylan Strome
2. Jeremy Bracco
3. Jordan Kyrou & Taylor Raddysh

Most Dangerous in the Goal Area:

Eastern Conference
1. Spencer Watson
2. Nikita Korostelev
3. Jason Robertson & Owen Tippett

Western Conference
1. Alex Debrincat
2. Jonah Gadjovich
3. Taylor Raddysh & Zach Senyshyn

Best Skater:

Eastern Conference
1. Michael McLeod
2. Jonathan Ang
3. Vili Saarijarvi

Western Conference
1. Victor Mete
2. Jordan Kyrou
3. Zach Senyshyn, Sean Day, Alex Formenton, & Mitchell Vande Sompel

Best Shot:

Eastern Conference
1. Owen Tippett
2. Dmitri Sokolov
3. Logan DeNoble

Western Conference
1. Alex Debrincat
2. Adam Mascherin
3. Mikhail Sergachev

Hardest Shot:

Eastern Conference
1. Nic Hague
2. Medric Mercier
3. Ryan Mantha & Stephen Desrocher

Western Conference
1. Mikhail Sergachev
2. Adam Mascherin
3. Kevin Spinozzi & Mitchell Vande Sompel

Best Stickhandler:

Eastern Conference
1. Artur Tyanulin
2. Dmitri Sokolov
3. Spencer Watson

Western Conference
1. Jeremy Bracco
2. Jordan Kyrou
3. Blake Speers, Dylan Strome, & Adam Mascherin

Best on Faceoffs:

Eastern Conference
1. Michael McLeod
2. Steven Lorentz
3. Sam Harding

Western Conference
1. Kyle Pettit
2. Cliff Pu
3. Drake Rymsha & Anthony Cirelli

Best Body Checker:

Eastern Conference
1. Zach Gallant
2. Sean Allen
3. Eemeli Rasanen & Nic Hague

Western Conference
1. Brandon Crawley
2. Givani Smith
3. Max Jones, Jacob Friend, & Cam Lizotte

Best Shot Blocker:

Eastern Conference
1. Justin Lemcke
2. Matt Spencer
3. Nic Hague

Western Conference
1. Darren Raddysh
2. Alex Peters
3. Brandon Crawley, & Cordell James

Best Defensive Forward:

Eastern Conference
1. Michael McLeod
2. Steven Lorentz
3. Jonathan Ang

Western Conference
1. Warren Foegele
2. Cordell James
3. Kyle Pettit, & Anthony Cirelli

Best Penalty Killer:

Eastern Conference
1. Brett McKenzie
2. Michael McLeod
3. Macauley Carson & Joe Manchurek

Western Conference
1. Nick Suzuki
2. Boris Katchouk
3. Darren Raddysh & Mitchell Stephens

Best Offensive Defenseman:

Eastern Conference
1. Vili Saarijarvi
2. Matthew Timms
3. Ryan Mantha

Western Conference
1. Mikhail Sergachev
2. Filip Hronek
3. Victor Mete & Darren Raddysh

Best Defensive Defenseman:

Eastern Conference
1. Matt Spencer
2. Justin Lemcke
3. Brandon Prophet, Nic Hague, & Jacob Moverare

Western Conference
1. Darren Raddysh
2. Victor Mete
3. Brandon Crawley, Frank Hora, & Conor Timmins

Best Puckhandling Goalie:

Eastern Conference
1. Jeremy Brodeur
2. Dylan Wells
3. Brent Moran & Dawson Carty

Western Conference
1. Tyler Parsons
2. Michael McNiven
3. Anthony Popovich

Best Shootout Shooter:

Eastern Conference
1. Nikita Korostelev
2. Will Bitten
3. Dmitri Sokolov

Western Conference
1. Anthony Cirelli
2. Janne Kuokkanen
3. Dylan Strome

Best Shootout Goalie:

Eastern Conference
1. Jeremy Brodeur
2. Dylan Wells
3. Jeremy Helvig

Western Conference
1. Michael Dipietro
2. Joseph Raaymakers
3. Justin Fazio

Stay tuned for the actual results. In the meantime, I'd love to see your predictions for certain categories.