OJHL LAUNCHES FAN FAVOURITE AWARD BALLOTING
“OJHL Fans to Name Favourite Player for Fourth Consecutive Year”
February 4, 2015, Mississauga, Ontario – The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) today launched the fourth 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 4, 2015) and will run throughout the playoffs, ending at 5pm EST on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. The winner of the fourth 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.
Through three seasons of voting, almost 50,000 votes have been cast for more than 500 players representing all OJHL member clubs during this time.
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)
As the end of the 2014-15 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).
2014-15 OJHL Awards in competition are as follows (last season’s winner in brackets/italics):
- Most Valuable Player (Taylor Best, Whitby Fury)
- Goaltender-of-the-Year (Kevin Entmaa, Aurora Tigers)
- Baycon Construction Top Defenceman (Michael Prapavessis, Toronto Lakeshore Patriots)
- Rookie-of-the-Year (Jake Walman, Toronto Jr. Canadiens)
- Top Prospect – Selected by NHL Central Scouting (Jake Walman, Toronto Jr. Canadiens)
- Most Gentlemanly Player (Michael Prapavessis, Toronto Lakeshore Patriots)
- Coach Canada Most Improved Player (Taylor Best, Whitby Fury)
- Coach-of-the-Year (James Richmond, Aurora Tigers)
- Executive-of-the-Year (Mike Tarantino, Toronto Lakeshore Patriots)
- Trainer-of-the-Year (Robb Crawford, Whitby Fury)
- Humanitarian-of-the-Year (Kevin Shier, Toronto Lakeshore Patriots)
- Scholastic Player-of-the-Year (Richard Court, Georgetown Raiders)
- Top Scorer (Taylor Best, Whitby Fury)
- Top Goals Against Average (Kevin Entmaa, Aurora Tigers)
- Playoff Most Valuable Player (Kevin Shier, Toronto Lakeshore 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.
About the OJHL – “League of Choice”
The Ontario Junior Hockey League is the largest Junior ‘A’ league operating under the auspices of the Canadian Junior Hockey League with 22 member clubs. A proud member of the Canadian Junior Hockey League and Ontario Hockey Association, the OJHL was originally named the Ontario Provincial Junior ‘A’ Hockey League and it was formed out of the Central Junior ‘B’ Hockey League in 1993-94. With a long and storied history of developing players for the next level, including the CIS, NCAA, CHL, Minor Pro ranks and the NHL, the OJHL has had more than 115 commitments in 2013-14, including 46 NCAA Division I scholarships.
For more information on the Ontario Junior Hockey League, please visit www.ojhl.ca.
