I checked this weekend on when the Gophers would have their postseason banquet. Best I could find out is, in a couple of weeks. Will try to get a firmer date this week.

Here are my award winners:

Team MVP: Alex Kangas. No contest on this one.

Rookie of the Year: Kangas.

Offensive Player of the Year: Blake Wheeler. He was the team’s best player the first half of the season, then stopped scoring goals the last third. … But not many other candidates.

Defenseman of the Year: Derek Peltier. He really picked up his game late in the season. Starting making rushes to the net. Led blue line players in points.

Not sure they have all these awards, but …

Unsung hero: Tom Pohl. Great attitude. Got a chance to play more than in any season as a senior, did well on penalty kills. Accepted his role. … You also have to be happy he survived the nasty injury he had.

Hardest worker: Not sure on this one. But several people who read this post suggested Tony Lucia. He had a lot of shots, always seems to be trying. He did not put the puck in the net too much, but let’s go with him.

Biggest shot: Mike Hoeffel. You can tell how hard his shot is just by the sound it makes going off the boards.

Biggest hitter: Stu Bickel. He had a lot of penalties, but he gave the Gophers a physical presence.

Best special teams player: Evan Kauffman. He had four goals on power plays and two assists; one goal shorthanded. Also was the team’s best face-off man, 56 percent, of those who took more than 20.

What do you think of these picks? Who would you pick for some of these? What awards have I missed? … I purposely stayed away from the negative categories, i.e. most disappointing player? etc.

LOOKING BACK 

Last yar the team awards banquet was April 15. The awards winners were John Mariucci MVP: defenseman Alex Goligoski; MVP of Playoffs: Wheeler; Rookie of the Year: Kyle Okposo; Outstanding Student-Athlete: Pohl; Unsung heroes: Jay Barriball and Evan Kaufmann; Leadership and sportsmanship: Mike Vannelli; Most Determined Player: Brent Solei. (Onlooker, you are hilarious.)

THE EXODUS STARTS

Two juniors in the WCHA have signed with NHL teams and will skip their senior seasons. Forward Jon Kalinski of Minnesota State Mankato signed with Philadelphia, defenseman Jason Garrison of UMD with Florida.

North Dakota is another team that could lose several key players with eligibility left after the Frozen Four. No word yet on Blake Wheeler of the Gophers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 7:46 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.