Thanks to the electorate, increased over last year, which produced a couple of very close votes. I was worried for a while that one award would split three ways.
It didn’t, but barely. Fan Favorite goes to Justin Johnson, by a vote over Brett Gallant and Scooter Vaughan. All good guys — team full of them, from an outsider’s perspective, anyway — and surely worthy, but JJ gets the nod from you guys.
Seventh Player wound up pretty close, too, with a late charge from the runner-up. It goes to Mike Halmo, who went from last year’s in-and-out to this year’s healthy-scratch-in-Game-2 to a great complement for Ryan Strome and Anders Lee to a good stint in the NHL. By the spirit of the award, that’s the guy I figured would win. But Chris Langkow got serious support, too, returning two years later and establishing himself as a key two-way centerman for this team.
Somewhat logically, the Three Stars Award goes to Ryan Strome, who had some of the most dominant stretches we’ve ever seen in these parts. He and Anders Nilsson were both picked as stars 10 times; Lee was chosen nine times. Strome was a No. 1 star five times, though. (I kind of thought Strome might be a Seventh Player possibility, just on the sheer ridiculousness of those last couple of stretches here. You expected a good player; you got borderline historic. But anyway.)
Thanks for your votes.
VOTING
FAN FAVORITE: Justin Johnson 5, Scooter Vaughan 4, Brett Gallant 4, Joe Finley 1.
SEVENTH PLAYER: Mike Halmo 5, Chris Langkow 4, Scooter Vaughan 2, Marc Cantin 1, Brett Gallant 1, Justin Johnson 1.
Fake Team Awards History
Seventh Player
2006–Matt Koalska
2007–Jason Pitton
2008–Trevor Smith
2009–Tyler Haskins
2010–Jon Gleed
2011–Jeremy Colliton
2011 special–Trainer Mike Schroeder/Equipment manager Leni DiCostanzo
2012–Tony Romano
2013–Brandon DeFazio
2014–Mike Halmo
Fan Favorite
2006–Steve Regier
2007–Wade Dubielewicz
2008–Kip Brennan
2009–Pascal Morency
2010–Greg Mauldin
2011–Micheal Haley
2012–Micheal Haley
2013–Ty Wishart
2014–Justin Johnson
Three Stars Award
2006–Wade Dubielewicz
2007–Wade Dubielewicz
2008–Jeff Tambellini
2009–Nathan Lawson/Mike Iggulden (shared)
2010–Greg Mauldin
2011–Jeremy Colliton
2012–Kevin Poulin
2013–Nino Niederreiter
2014–Ryan Strome