2014 Awards!

In keeping with traditions established by the NHL, the Professional Keeper League Writers Association have voted  in secretive, opaque and entirely unaccountable fashion to determine the winners of this year's awards.

Congratulations to all winners.

Calder: 

The best fantasy player drafted for the first time in the Keeper League.

This year's winner is a tie between the Los Amjawors Kings and the Wilkes-Benham/Scranton Parkers. They drafted Ben Bishop and Nathan Mackinnon respectively. Ben Bishop's 91 points made him one of the most productive goaltenders in the entire Keeper League, while Nathan Mackinnon breached 60 points as a rookie.

HM: The G-Phil's Flyers picked Andrej Sekera, who led all previously undrafted defencemen with 44 points, good for 15th in defensive scoring in the NHL. Also, I guess we give credit, by default, to the Los Amjawors Kings for picking Johnathan Drouin, who despite not getting a single point is a damn fine hockey player. 

Doug Wilson:  

Awarded to the most active GM.

In a SHOCKING development, the most active team was the Patrik Stefans, with 10 entries in the trade ledger.

 

HM:The Fylanders, obviously and unsurprisingly.

Ken Holland:  

Best draft pick.

Like most years, this award is one that generated significant debate amongst the members of the PKLWA. Ultimately, Mark Giordano (7th round, Mackhawks) narrowly edged Evgeni Kuznetzov (9th round, Dicklas Lidstroms) for the award. Kuznetzov is very probably going to be a hell of a hockey player, but it is hard to argue with getting a top 10 defenceman in the late rounds.

HMs: Many, but Mats Zuccarello was taken 143rd overall by the Moilers, producing a stunning 59 points. Gustav Nyquist was taken by the Schizzarks 108th overall with 48 points. The G-Phil's Flyers probably won the Krusell Cup on the strength of 97th overall selection Andrej Sekera's 44 points.
 

Rick DiPietro: 

Worst draft pick.

Gudbranson and it ain't even close. The Los Amjawors King's picked him 35th overall and got 9 points out of that asshole. At the time no one thought it was a that bad of a pick, but one of the advantages to reviewing this in hindsight is exactly that - hindsight. For the record, Ryan McDonagh was available (taken 4 spots later) and had 43 points. 

HMs: None. I mean, Marty Erat was really pretty bad, but not Gudbranson bad.

George McPhee:  

Best Free Agent signing.

Sometimes in life there are beautiful moments of synchronicity, and I present to you a wonderfully complementary pair of awards. 

Tied for the best free agent signing: The Milan Micahleks dropping Matt Frattin for Charlie Coyle, and the Mackhawks dropping Pascal Dupuis for Wayne Simmonds. Both GMs improved their teams with the careful and judicious use of their precious free agent add/drop slots...

Glen Sather:  

Worst free agent signing.

... unlike the Quebec Rordiques and the Matthawks, who respectively dropped Charlie Coyle for Chris Higgins, and Wayne Simmonds for fucking Tommy Wingels. The only reason the George McPhee winners were able to acquire the players they did was because of these decisions.

Mike Milbury:  

Biggest fleecing.

Surprisingly, there was actually not a clear-cut winner this year. After a great deal of debate (which is a credit to the league), the best the PKLWA could come up with is a trade which saw the Moilers send Kris Letang, Alex Edler, Max Domi and a 2014 7th round pick to the Patrik Stefans for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Marc Arcobello, and Dmitri Orlov. The trade is really more a credit to the Patrik Stefans than it is an indictment of the Moilers, who had no way of knowing that Letang was going to bounce right back from a frigging stroke.

Dave Nonis:  

The most useless transaction.

This is a new award category, given to the GMs who generated the most useless, irrelevant transaction over the course of the season. 

On December 15, 2013, the Los Samjawors Kings sent Ryan Malone + 2014 5th round draft pick to the Quebec Rordiques for Chris Higgins. Two non-keeper players trading spaces on two non-playoff teams. If the trade never happened, both teams would have ended up in the exact same place. Entering trades takes several minutes, and this is one chunk of time the administration team will never get back.

HM: Free agent add/drop of Marc Staal for Kris Russell. Really, Teeyotes?

GM of the Year

In spite of the above, the 2013-14 GM of the year is the Teeyotes on the strength of a sound draft, and a couple shrewd moves that will serve the team well for years to come. They saw value in Ben Bishop, who, as noted above, was one of the best goaltenders in the league, giving up Evgeni Nabokov (and Brent Seabrook for Tyler Myers). As well, they managed to swap aging Henrik Zetterberg for Paul Stastny, who who looks to feature on their scoring roster for the next decade. Sometimes it isn't the quantity of moves, but the quality that earns this award. Congratulations Teeyotes!

HMs: The Winter Claassics. On the trade front it was a quiet year, but a series of clever draft selections and moves have moved the Claassics firmly out of the basement and into the top half of the league. 

Perpetual GM of the Year winner/runner-up, the Fylanders have the best overall record in the league and can always be counted on to be active throughout the year, making good moves that improve their team.

The Mackhawks also deserve recognition for a money finish and two consecutive playoff pool wins.