This unprecedentedly strange season, which began with a slew of injuries and ended suddenly with a pandemic, produced a weird year in our little ballot. Six votes. Not a lot. Not enough to decide one trophy. But hey, we’re voting in May for a season that hasn’t had a game in almost two months and technically isn’t over yet. I can’t complain.
We found a Seventh Player in Nick Schilkey, who got half the votes cast. Sort of unheralded even after winning the Calder Cup last year with Charlotte, he was the Sound Tigers’ sixth-leading scorer among forwards and chipped in on the power play. Bobo Carpenter, Travis St. Denis and Jeff Kubiak got a vote apiece.
Kubiak gets a piece of the Fan Favorite award, but just a piece of it: Six votes for six different players, one of whom was traded a week and change before everything stopped. It was that kind of year.
With six second-star picks, Kieffer Bellows takes the Three Stars Award. Christopher Gibson, in sorta limited action, was the runner-up, though he was first star four times.
VOTING
SEVENTH PLAYER: Nick Schilkey 3, Bobo Carpenter 1, Jeff Kubiak 1, Travis St. Denis 1.
FAN FAVORITE: TIE, Ryan Bourque 1, Kyle Burroughs 1, Christopher Gibson 1, Seth Helgeson 1, Jeff Kubiak 1, Oliver Wahlstrom 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
2015–Scooter Vaughan
2016–Jared Gomes
2017–Travis St. Denis
2018–John Stevens
2019–Otto Koivula
2020–Nick Schilkey
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
2015–Brett Gallant
2016–Joe Whitney/Mike Halmo (tie)
2017–TIE
2018–TIE
2019–Travis St. Denis
2020–TIE
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
2015–Kevin Poulin
2016–Bracken Kearns
2017–Bracken Kearns
2018–Travis St. Denis
2019–Steve Bernier
2020–Kieffer Bellows