OHL Coaches Poll - My Ballot (2018)

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.

As is the case every year, some of these categories were really hard to narrow down; a testament to the talent level in the Ontario Hockey League. So if your favourite player isn't listed...my apologies.

Most Underrated Player:

Eastern Conference
1. Ben Jones
2. Zachary Magwood
3. Luke Burghardt & Jakob Brahaney

Western Conference
1. Mac Hollowell
2. Mason Kohn
3. Franco Spoviero & Aidan Dudas

Most Improved Player:

Eastern Conference
1. Joey Keane
2. Albert Michnac
3. Kaden Fulcher

Western Conference
1. Sean Durzi
2. Morgan Frost
3. Justin Fazio

Smartest Player:

Eastern Conference
1. Robert Thomas
2. Gabriel Vilardi
3. Matthew Strome, Aaron Luchuk, & Jack Studnicka

Western Conference
1. Evan Bouchard
2. Nick Suzuki
3. Morgan Frost & Taylor Raddysh

Hardest Worker:

Eastern Conference
1. Travis Barron
2. Isaac Nurse
3. Serron Noel & Sam Miletic

Western Conference
1. Hayden Verbeek
2. Jonah Gadjovich
3. Ty Dellandrea & Mason Kohn

Best Playmaker:

Eastern Conference
1. Robert Thomas
2. Gabriel Vilardi
3. Ryan McLeod, Ben Jones & Jack Studnicka

Western Conference
1. Evan Bouchard
2. Jordan Kyrou
3. Morgan Frost & Nick Suzuki

Most Dangerous in the Goal Area:

Eastern Conference
1. Andrei Svechnikov
2. Jason Robertson
3. Justin Brazeau, Owen Tippett & Aaron Luchuk

Western Conference
1. Jonah Gadjovich
2. Boris Katchouk
3. Adam Mascherin

Best Skater:

Eastern Conference
1. Andrei Svechnikov
2. Michael McLeod & Ryan McLeod
3. Sean Day, Luke Burghardt & Will Bitten

Western Conference
1. Alex Formenton
2. Jordan Kyrou
3. Ryan Merkley & Liam Foudy

Best Shot:

Eastern Conference
1. Andrei Svechnikov & Dmitry Sokolov
2. Owen Tippett & Nic Hague
3. Jason Robertson & Gabriel Vilardi

Western Conference
1. Adam Mascherin
2. Evan Bouchard
3. Boris Katchouk

Hardest Shot:

Eastern Conference
1. Nic Hague
2. Matt Brassard
3. Andrei Svechnikov

Western Conference
1. Evan Bouchard
2. Isaac Ratcliffe
3. Adam Mascherin

Best Stickhandler:

Eastern Conference
1. Andrei Svechnikov
2. Jason Robertson
3. Will Bitten & Sasha Chmelevski

Western Conference
1. Jordan Kyrou
2. Ryan Merkley
3. Morgan Frost

Best on Faceoffs:

Eastern Conference
1. Michael McLeod
2. Cliff Pu
3. Robert Thomas & Aaron Luchuk

Western Conference
1. Drake Rymsha
2. Michael Pezzetta
3. Kevin Hancock

Best Body Checker:

Eastern Conference
1. Tyler Tucker
2. Nic Hague
3. Riley Stillman & Max Jones

Western Conference
1. Jacob Friend
2. Jordan Ernst
3. Logan Stanley

Best Shot Blocker:

Eastern Conference
1. Justin Lemcke
2. Jake Henderson
3. Liam Ham & Jakob Brahaney

Western Conference
1. Connor Hall
2. Keaton Middleton
3. Connor Schlichting & Conor Timmins

Best Defensive Forward:

Eastern Conference
1. Brandon Saigeon
2. Jason Willms
3. Travis Barron

Western Conference
1. Kevin Hancock
2. Ty Dellandrea
3. Hayden Verbeek

Best Penalty Killer:

Eastern Conference
1. Jason Willms
2. Ted Nichol
3. Ben Jones & Isaac Nurse

Western Conference
1. Boris Katchouk
2. Nick Suzuki & Maksim Sushko
3. Liam Foudy & Franco Spoviero

Best Offensive Defenseman:

Eastern Conference
1. Nic Hague
2. Matt Brassard
3. Joey Keane

Western Conference
1. Evan Bouchard
2. Ryan Merkley
3. Sean Durzi & Conor Timmins

Best Defensive Defenseman:

Eastern Conference
1. Justin Lemcke
2. Nic Hague
3. Jakob Brahaney

Western Conference
1. Conor Timmins
2. Logan Stanley
3. Connor Schlichting & Connor Hall

Best Puckhandling Goalie:

Eastern Conference
1. Dylan Wells
2. Stephen Dhillon
3. Kyle Keyser

Western Conference
1. Anthony Popovich
2. Matthew Villalta
3. Evan Cormier

Best Shootout Shooter:

Eastern Conference
1. Jason Robertson
2. Adam Thilander
3. Will Bitten & Aaron Luchuk

Western Conference
1. Nick Suzuki
2. Ivan Lodnia
3. Jordan Kyrou

Best Shootout Goalie:

Eastern Conference
1. Kyle Keyser
2. Kaden Fulcher
3. Jacob Ingham

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

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