The Western Hockey League held its annual rewards banquet on Wednesday at the Cambridge Hotel & Conference Centre in Red Deer, Alberta, and the Everett Silvertips organization picked up a pair of awards.
Dustin Wolf was pegged as the WHL’s scholastic player of the year, beating out Prince Albert’s Jakob Brook, to earn the Doc Seaman trophy and was edged out by Prince Albert’s Ian Scott, a Maple Leafs prospect, for the Del Wilson Trophy as the league’s top goaltender.
Prince Albert's Ian Scott wins Del Wilson Trophy as goalie of the year, beating out Everett's Dustin Wolf.
Wolf had slightly better numbers, but Scott not far behind. As 2001-goalie, Wolf will have a couple more shots of winning this award. This is likely Scott's last chance
— Josh Horton (@JoshHortonEDH) May 1, 2019
Wolf is the second Everett player in three years to win the award. Brian King, who retired from hockey to pursue a full-ride engineering scholarship at the University of Alabama, won it in 2016-2017.
Wolf is the fourth consecutive Western Conference nominee for WHL goaltender of the year out of Everett, after Carter Hart won the league award for three consecutive season before moving on to a professional career with the Philadelphia Flyers this season.
The Silvertips also picked up the WHL Business Award, edging the Eastern Conference nominee Lethbridge Hurricanes. It’s the organization’s second such honor, with chief operating officer Zoran Rajcic winning it in 2009-2010.
Curtis Hunt, the general manager of the Prince Albert Raiders, was named the executive of the year, beating out Everett general manager Garry Davidson. Davidson won the award last season and was the Western Conference nominee for the second consecutive year.
Notes
— For the first time since 2015 and the second time since 2008, the Western Conference’s representative for the Western Hockey League finals is not from the U.S. Division after the Spokane Chiefs were ousted in five games by the Vancouver Giants. They’ll be pitted against Prince Albert, the Scotty Munro trophy winner for best regular-season record, for the Ed Chynoweth Cup. Game 1 is on Friday in Prince Albert at 6 p.m. PT.
— The second round of the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup playoffs began on Wednesday and three Silvertips’ alumni still remain: Garrett Pilon (2018) and Riley Sutter (2015-2019) with the Hershey Bears and Connor Dewar (2015-2019) with the Iowa Wild. Pilon is the only one of the trio to see ice time in the postseason, with two assists in five games in the Bears’ first-round series win over Bridgeport. Hershey takes on the Charlotte Checkers in the next round and Iowa clashes with Chicago in best-of-seven series.
— Ondrej Vala (2018) and Idaho are up against the wall in the second-round of the ECHL playoffs, with the Steelheads down 3-0 in the best-of-seven Kelly Cup series. Vala hasn’t recorded a point over eight playoffs games.
— Patrick Bajkov (2013-2018) and the Florida Everblades are up 2-1 over the Orlando Solar Bears, but Bajkov hasn’t drawn into the lineup yet in the series.
— After falling behind 2-1 with a Game 3 loss, Karpat and Shaun Heshka (2003-2006) are up 3-2 over Eetu Tuulola’s (2016-2017) HPK squad in the SM-Liiga (Finnish top league) finals. If Karpat can clinch the series, it will be its second consecutive championship and fourth in six years for the club. Both Heshka and Tuulola boast an assist in five games during the series. Game 6 is Thursday.
— The Silvertips are holding a contest to design Dustin Wolf’s goalie mask for the 2019-2020 season, and the winner will be granted a meet-and-greet and lunch with Wolf. More details and a link for submission can be found at the Silvertips’ website.
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