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, 2016) and will run throughout the playoffs, ending at 5pm EST on Thursday, March 31, 2016. The winner of the fifth annual Fan Favourite Award will be unveiled prior to game one or two of the OJHL Championship Series during the fifth 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 record numbers in the voting with more than 56,000 votes cast for almost 200 different players and through the four years of Fan Favourite Award balloting, more than 105,000 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)
As the end of the 2015-16 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 eight General Managers (two/division) and twelve Media Members (three/division).
2015-16 OJHL Awards in competition are as follows (last season’s winner in brackets/italics):
- Most Valuable Player (Steve Hladin, Georgetown Raiders)
- Goaltender-of-the-Year (Justin Kapelmaster, Trenton Golden Hawks)
- Top Defenceman (Eric Williams, Aurora Tigers)
- Rookie-of-the-Year (Cameron Morrison, Aurora Tigers)
- Top Prospect – Selected by NHL Central Scouting (Will Reilly, North York Rangers)
- Most Gentlemanly Player (Steve Hladin, Georgetown Raiders)
- Most Improved Player (Gabriel Valenzuela, North York Rangers)
- Coach-of-the-Year (James Richmond, Aurora Tigers)
- Executive-of-the-Year (Rob Campbell, Oakville Blades)
- Trainer-of-the-Year (Drew Laskoski, Newmarket Hurricanes)
- Humanitarian-of-the-Year (Sean Kohler, Oakville Blades)
- Scholastic Player-of-the-Year (Sam Hu, Georgetown Raiders)
- Top Scorer (Steve Hladin, Georgetown Raiders)
- Top Goals Against Average (Stefano Durante, Cobourg Cougars)
- Playoff Most Valuable Player (Mathew Robson, Toronto Patriots)
- 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 Goals Against Average announced immediately following the completion of the regular season based on final regular season statistics.
