Each year, the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) presents seven awards for on-ice excellence: Most Valuable Player, Top Scorer, Top Defenceman, Top Goaltender, Rookie of the Year, Most Sportsmanlike Player and Coach of the Year.

Winners are named from the four divisions prior to the start of KIJHL Playoffs, with overall league award winners to be announced the first week of April.

Today, we recognize the award winners for the Eddie Mountain Division.

Most Valuable Player
Tristan Weill – Kimberley Dynamiters

Weill, 19, led the Dynamiters with 71 points in 36 games, ranking him second in the KIJHL. He has 38 goals, 10 are game-winners and has 25 power-play points, while playing 16:42 a game. The West Kelowna product was also a plus-26 and won 58% of faceoffs. Weill was named the Hudl Instat KIJHL Top Forward three times.

“Tristan has been dominant since our first game and a big reason was him coming into training camp in excellent shape,” said head coach Derek Stuart. “He is a very important part of our offence. He has speed, skill and is extremely strong, which makes him very hard to play against.”

Top Scorer
Luke Chakrabarti – Creston Valley Thunder Cats

Chakrabarti is the KIJHL’s Top Scorer again. Last season he earned the honour with 78 points in 41 games. This year he won it with 75 points, including a new career high with 45 assists, in 44 games and was plus-24.

Chakrabarti, 20, had six game-winners and 14 power-play points, while playing 20:44 a game. Since Dec. 30, Chakrabarti has been held pointless once in 16 games, and the Surrey native scored 13 goals and 22 points, including a five-point effort against Nelson and a seven-point performance against Spokane. Chakarbarti was named the Hudl Instat KIJHL Top Forward two times.

Top Defenceman
Max Chakrabarti – Creston Valley Thunder Cats

Chakrabarti, 18, led all KIJHL defencemen with 55 points in 40 games, while playing 23:13 a game (3:30 on the power-play and 1:11 on the penalty-kill). He set new career highs in all offensive categories in his second season. Chakrabarti had two game-winners, a short-handed goal and 15 power-play points. He recorded a season high seven points against Spokane. The Surrey native was a plus-15 this season and blocked nearly two shots a game.

Chakrabarti was named the Hudl Instat KIJHL Top Defenceman three times.

Most Sportsmanlike Player
Tyson Tokarz – Creston Valley Thunder Cats

Tokarz, 19, continued his disciplined play from a rookie a season ago, to this year. After spending eight minutes in the box, the Guy, Alta., product spent just six minutes in it, while playing an average of 18:10 a game.

Tokarz won 48% of puck battles. He had 34 points in 44 games, and collected 11 on the power-play.

Top Goaltender
Nate Glenn – Columbia Valley Rockies

Glenn, 20, is among the KIJHL’s best in all categories after playing 1,624 minutes – 11th among all goalies. He won 17 of his 28 games and ranks sixth in wins, fifth in save percentage (SP) (.927) and 10th in goals against (2.47).  His 17 wins bettered the 15 he earned last season as a rookie.

The Cary, N.C. product was tough to score against allowing 67 goals on 913 shots. He has a scoring area SP of 86, while on breakaways it’s 91 per cent. He averaged 2.9 brilliant saves per game according to Hudl Instat data.

Glenn was named the Hudl Instat KIJHL Top Goalie two times.

Rookie of the Year
Carter Velker – Columbia Valley Rockies

Velker, 18, collected 37 points in 44 games to lead the Rockies, while playing 16:20 a game. Velker, 19, had a game-winner and 11 power-play assists as he averaged 3:24 of ice time on the man-advantage. The Calgary product was a plus-five and won 52 per cent of faceoffs.

Coach of the Year
Ty Valin – Fernie Ghostriders

Valin guided the Ghostriders to the Eddie Mountain Division regular season title – the first for the organization since the 2014-15 season – in his third season as head coach-GM.

The Ghostriders went 29-11-3-1 and Valin has improved on his win totals in each of his three seasons (74 career regular season wins). This year they finished sixth overall.

The power-play executed at 19.4%, good for eighth in the league, while the penalty-kill is fourth best at 86.3%.

KIJHL photos

KIJHL

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