EVERETT — The Western Hockey League on Tuesday announced its 2016-17 conference award winners and it should come as little surprise that both Everett Silvertips goaltender Carter Hart and defenseman Noah Juuslen were named Western Conference first-team all-stars.
In addition, Tips defenseman Kevin Davis was the Western Conference nominee for Most Sportsmanlike Player of the Year and will compete against Swift Current’s Tyler Steenbergen for the Brad Hornung Trophy on May 3.
“(Davis) does (his job) in such a quiet way,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “He doesn’t race around looking for attention. He just does his job, which is so admirable, so I’m the most happy for him that he is getting some recognition for what he’s done. The other guys deserve it, but they’ve gotten some attention. I think Kevin is underappreciated for how good a player he is.”
Hart was also named the Western Conference Goaltender of the Year for the second consecutive season and will go against Eastern Conference honoree Zach Sawchenko for the league-wide award on May 3. It’s also the second consecutive nomination for Sawchenko. Hart won the WHL Goaltender of the Year award last year en route to CHL Goaltender of the Year honors. He reprised his stellar 17-year-old campaign with an even better showing this season as an 18-year-old.
The Philadelphia Flyers signee finished the regular season with a 32-11-6-2 record and league highs in save percentage (.927), goals-against average (1.99) and shutouts (nine). He also backstopped Team Canada to the silver medal at the World Junior Championship in Montreal in January.
A native of Sherwood Park, Alberta, Hart was named the WHL Goaltender of the Month in November and February, the CHL Goaltender of the Week for Nov. 27, and was three times honored as WHL Goaltender of the Week.
“There are some other good goalies in the league — his cohort on the Canadian national junior team, (Connor) Ingram, has had a helluva year too,” Constantine said, referring to the Kamloops netminder. “We wouldn’t want any other goalie but Carter as ours, so we think he’s very deserving of where he has been.”
Juulsen, from Abbotsford, B.C., earned first-team honors after making the second team a season ago. The Tips captain and Montreal Canadiens prospect set a career high with a dozen goals and added 22 assists. Along with Hart, Juulsen earned a silver medal with Team Canada at January’s World Junior Championship.
He was naturally grateful for the recognition, but more focused on the upcoming task ahead.
“It’s obviously not a big deal going into this week with playoffs coming up, so I’ve just got to put it behind me here and keep looking forward to the playoffs,” Juulsen said.
Davis had a breakout season offensively thanks in part to quarterbacking Everett’s top power-play unit. The Kamloops, B.C., native finished the season with career highs in goals (nine) and assists (50). His 29 power-play assists were tied for first among all WHL defensemen and his eight power-play goals were tied for fourth. Davis also tallied just 14 penalty minutes while appearing in all 72 games this season.
“I just play my own game within the structure,” Davis said. “I guess it helps not being an overly physical guy, but I’m going to finish my checks. It’s an honor to be named.”
The star power of the U.S. Division was displayed in the all-star selections. Five of the six first-teamers came from the U.S. Division and four of the six second-teamers came from the division.
Other first-team honorees included Seattle defenseman Ethan Bear (also the conference nominee for Defenseman of the Year), Seattle forward Mathew Barzal (also the conference nominee for Player of the Year), Portland forward Cody Glass and Victoria forward Matthew Phillips.
Named to the second team were Kamloops goalie Connor Ingram, Tri-City defensemen Parker Wotherspoon and Juuso Valimaki, Tri-City forward Morgan Geekie, Spokane forward Kailer Yamamoto and Kelowna forward Kole Lind.
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