Friday, March 6, 2020

OHL Coaches Poll - My Ballot (2020)

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 soon.

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
East
1. Ty Tullio
2. Mitchell Hoelscher
3. Cole Schwindt, Bradey Johnson, & Ivan Lodnia
West
1. Connor Corcoran
2. Barret Kirwin
3. Riley McCourt, Chad Yetman, & Brett Brochu



Most Improved Player
East
1. Jack Quinn
2. Tyson Foerster
3. Cole Schwindt
West
1. Nico Daws
2. Luke Evangelista
3. Robert Calisti, Daniil Chayka, & Jacob Ingham



Smartest Player
East
1. Marco Rossi
2. Shane Wright
3. Arthur Kaliyev, Austen Keating, Nick Robertson, & Tyson Foerster
West
1. Cole Perfetti
2. Jamie Drysdale
3. Ty Dellandrea & Connor McMichael



Hardest Worker
East 
1. Zayde Wisdom
2. Keean Washkurak
3. Brett Neumann, Kyle MacLean, & Isaac Nurse
West
1. Aidan Dudas
2. Cedric Ralph
3. Riley Damiani, Damien Giroux, & Barret Kirwan



Best Playmaker
East
1. Akil Thomas & Marco Rossi
2. Jan Jenik & Semyon Der Arguchintsev
3. Philip Tomasino & Quinton Byfield
West
1. Ryan Merkley
2. Cole Perfetti
3. Ryan Suzuki & Ty Dellandrea, & Cam Hillis



Most Dangerous in the Goal Area
East
1. Arthur Kaliyev
2. Nick Robertson
3. Quinton Byfield, Jack Quinn, & Brett Neumann
West
1. Jonathan Yantsis
2. Pavel Gogolev
3. Connor McMichael



Best Skater
East
1. Brett Neumann
2. Thomas Harley
3. Philip Tomasino, Brandon Coe, Keean Washkurak, & Joseph Garreffa
West
1. Jamie Drysdale
2. Liam Foudy
3. Jean Luc Foudy, Jacob Perreault, Robert Calisti, & Adam McMaster



Best Shot
East
1. Nick Robertson
2. Arthur Kaliyev
3. Jack Quinn & Tyson Foerster
West
1. Pavel Gogolev
2. Connor McMichael
3. Cole Perfetti, Jonathan Yantsis & Egor Afansyev



Hardest Shot
East
1. Arthur Kaliyev
2. Nick Robertson & Tyson Foerster
3. Noel Hoefenmayer
West
1. Tyler Tucker
2. Eric Hjorth & Hunter Skinner
3. Brady Lyle & Alec Regula



Best Stickhandler
East
1. Akil Thomas & Nick Robertson
2. Quinton Byfield & Jan Jenik
3. Philip Tomasino, Joseph Garreffa, Marco Rossi, Ivan Lodnia & Jan Mysak
West
1. Ryan Merkley
2. Cole Perfetti
3. Riley Damiani, Jacob Perreault, & Antonio Stranges



Best on Faceoffs
East
1. Zach Gallant
2. Brett Neumann
3. Cole Schwindt, Max Grondin, & Akil Thomas
West
1. Ty Dellandrea
2. Jason Willms
3. Ryan McGregor & Cam Hillis



Best Body Checker
East 
1. Navrin Mutter
2. Kevin Bahl & Merrick Rippon
3. Zach Gallant & John Parker Jones
West
1. Arber Xhekaj
2. Kelton Hatcher & Jamieson Rees
3. Fedor Gordeev & Tyler Tucker



Best Shot Blocker
East
1. Kevin Bahl & Nikita Okhotyuk
2. Mitchell Brewer
3. Cole Schwindt & Hudson Wilson
West
1. Luke Boka
2. Ryan O’Rourke
3. Alec Regula, Fedor Gordeev, Mark Woolley & Sean Josling



Best Defensive Forward
East 
1. Marco Rossi
2. Zach Gallant
3. Kyle MacLean, Mitchell Hoelscher, Cole Schwindt, & Bradey Johnson
West
1. Damien Giroux
2. Ty Dellandrea & Aidan Dudas
3. Ryan McGregor & Jason Willms



Best Penalty Killer
East
1. Nick Robertson
2. Kevin Bahl
3. Luke Moncada & Keean Washkurak
West
1. Aidan Dudas
2. Liam Foudy 
3. Greg Meireles, Damien Giroux, & Sean Josling



Best Offensive Defenseman
East
1. Noel Hoefenmayer
2. Thomas Harley
3. Declan Chisholm
West
1. Ryan Merkley
2. Jamie Drysdale
3. Riley McCourt & Brady Lyle



Best Defensive Defenseman
East
1. Kevin Bahl & Nikita Okhotyuk
2. Hudson Wilson
3. Mitchell Brewer & Brandt Clarke
West
1. Markus Phillips & Alec Regula
2. Michael Vukojevic & Tyler Tucker
3. Fedor Gordeev & Connor Corcoran



Best Puck Handling Goalie
East
1. Kai Edmonds
2. Zach Roy
3. Hunter Jones
West
1. Anthony Popovich & Nico Daws
2. Jacob Ingham
3. Daniel Murphy



Best Shootout Shooter
East
1. Ivan Lodnia
2. Francesco Arcuri
3. Quinton Byfield, Shane Wright, & Tag Bertuzzi
West
1. Cole Perfetti
2. Riley Damiani & Pavel Gogolev
3. Ty Dellandrea & Antonio Stranges



Best Shootout Goalie
East
1. Kai Edmonds
2. Tucker Tynan
3. Cedrick Andree
West
1. Jacob Ingham
2. Ben Gaudreau
3. Nico Daws

3 comments:

  1. Mason Howard of the Niagara Icedogs should be nominated for best shot blocker

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  2. How close was Ryan O'Rourke to being best defensive defenseman? I was much more impressed with him than Gordeev or Tucker. They throw some big hits, but can't compare to his excellent positional game and shot blocking.

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  3. Always appreciate your efforts and it'll always drum up discussion due to opinion variance. Only one I'll call you flat out wrong on is hardest worker in the West. Not a sane Ranger fan anywhere who'd put Damiani ahead of Meireles. They're not even same tier of work ethic.

    ReplyDelete