2017 FAN FAVOURITE AWARD VOTING LAUNCHED

February 9, 2017

10:48 AM EST

The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) today launched the sixth annual Fan Favourite Award balloting.

The Fan Favourite Award was presented for the first time following the 2011-12 season and has OJHL fans vote online to choose their favourite OJHL star.  All fans will be allowed to submit players names in an online form found on the homepage of the OJHL website, www.ojhl.ca.  The winner will be the player that receives the most submissions (votes) through the course of the online voting.

Voting begins today (February 1, 2017) and will run throughout the playoffs, ending at 5pm EST on Friday, March 31, 2017.  The winner of the sixth annual Fan Favourite Award will be unveiled prior to game one or two of the OJHL Championship Series during the seventh Annual OJHL Awards Ceremony.

Once again this year, the award will be presented to the winning player by a selected fan from the winning player’s city, on-ice, during the award ceremony prior to game one or two of the OJHL Championship Series.

Last year saw more than 50,000 votes cast for more than 170 different players and through five years of Fan Favourite Award balloting, more than 160,000 votes have been registered.

Previous OJHL Fan Favourite Award recipients (runner-up in brackets):

2011-12        Andrew Doyle, Stouffville Spirit (Christian Finch, Stouffville Spirit)
2012-13        Travis Dermott, Newmarket Hurricanes (Adrian Ignagni, St. Michael’s Buzzers)
2013-14        Stuart Fierheller, Lindsay Muskies (Michael Casale, Kingston Voyageurs)
2014-15        Cole Bolton, Kingston Voyageurs (Blayne Oliver, Trenton Golden Hawks)
2015-16        Blayne Oliver, Trenton Golden Hawks (Andrew Lee, Burlington Cougars)

As the end of the 2016-17 OJHL regular season approaches, other annual awards remain in competition.  All OJHL year-end awards are voted upon by the OJHL Awards Committee that is comprised of a select group of General Managers and Media Members.

2016-17 OJHL Awards in competition are as follows (last season’s winner in brackets):

•    Most Valuable Player (Luc Brown, Wellington Dukes)
•    Goaltender-of-the-Year (Andrew Masters, Georgetown Raiders)
•    Top Defenceman (Patrick Kudla, Oakville Blades)
•    Rookie-of-the-Year (Jack Jacome, Georgetown Raiders)
•    Top Prospect – Selected by NHL Central Scouting (Matthew Cairns, Georgetown Raiders)
•    Most Gentlemanly Player (Brendan Jacome, Georgetown Raiders)
•    Most Improved Player (Luc Brown, Wellington Dukes)
•    Coach-of-the-Year (Mark Jooris, Burlington Cougars)
•    Executive-of-the-Year (John McDonald, Trenton Golden Hawks)
•    Trainer-of-the-Year (Joe Aiello, Cobourg Cougars)
•    Humanitarian-of-the-Year (Stefano Durante, Cobourg Cougars)
•    Scholastic Player-of-the-Year (Andrew Court, Georgetown Raiders)
•    Top Scorer (Luc Brown, Wellington Dukes)
•    Top Goals Against Average (Daniel Urbani, Trenton Golden Hawks)
•    Playoff Most Valuable Player (Daniel Urbani, Trenton Golden Hawks)
•    1st & 2nd OJHL All-Star Teams
•    1st & 2nd OJHL All-Prospect Teams

The OJHL Awards will be unveiled throughout the course of the playoffs with the first awards, Top Scorer and Top Goaltender (Goals Against Average) announced immediately following the completion of the regular season based on final regular season statistics.