Victoria Grizzlies blue-liner Jake Stevens was named the sa国际传媒 Hockey League鈥檚 top defenceman on Thursday, becoming just the third member of the Victoria franchise to capture the honour.
鈥淚t feels good that all the hard work the last couple of years paid off. The big thing for me is it looks good going into school next year,鈥� said Stevens, a Naperville, Illinois, native who finished the year with 53 points and will head to St. Lawrence University in the NCAA next season.
鈥淚 was really happy with my season. I wanted even better, but ultimately it was a successful season and it was nice that other people recognized that, too.鈥�
Stevens was one of three Grizzlies finalists for the 2016-17 BCHL awards.
Goaltender Matthew Galajda and GM and head coach Craig Didmon finished as runners-up in the most valuable player and coach of the year categories.
Brendan Harris, who led the league with 98 points, and Bliss Littler captured those two honours. Both are with the No. 1 Wenatchee Wild. Harris also claimed the most sportsmanlike award, while Powell River鈥檚 Cam Donaldson was selected as rookie of the year.
The winners were chosen from a group of three finalists, one from each division, after a second round of voting by coaches.
Non-voting awards also went to Harris as top scorer; Vernon鈥檚 Darion Hanson as top goaltender with a 1.84 goals-against average; Penticton鈥檚 Mat Robson and Nolan Hildebrand as top goalie tandem (lowest combined GAA of 2.14); and the Wild won the Ron Boileau Memorial trophy with the best regular-season record of 45-9-4-0.
Stevens follows Jordan Heywood of the 2010 Grizzlies and Rob Milliken of the 1993 Victoria Warriors as BCHL defencemen of the year. Milliken shared the award with Jeff Tory of Penticton as awards were handed out to Coastal and Interior Conference teams. Heywood shared it with Mat Bodie of the Powell River Kings in the Coastal Conference while Brendan Ellis of the Westside Warriors was the Interior Conference top defenceman.
