The Mr. Hockey Post
by WCHBlog on Mar 9, 2009 9:48 AM PDT
8 comments
This year should be one of the closest votes for the Minnesota Mr. Hockey Award in recent history. There are a couple different players that have an excellent shot at winning, even despite the fact that one of the top contenders for the award, Edina's Zach Budish, missed the entire season with a knee injury.
Mr. Hockey is an interesting award, because it takes into account a couple different factors. It's not all about what a player has done in his high school career, but also what he is likely to do in the future.
Here's a listing of the 10 finalists for the award.
I decided to break things down by ranking the finalists in a couple different categories. Who is the most talented player right now? And who has the best opportunity to be a great player at the college and NHL level.
The best right now:
1. Nick Leddy
2. Danny Mattson
3. Ben Hanowski
4. Anders Lee
5. Max Tardy
I know everyone will immediately point to Hanowski's impressive point totals, but I think competition has to be considered. He averaged 4.4 points per game, but only played six games against teams ranked in Class A: vs. Virginia-0 points, vs. St. Cloud Cathedral-5 points, vs. Alexandria-3 points, vs. New Prague-4 points, vs. Alexandria-1 point, vs. Alexandria-3 points. That's an average of 2.67 points per game against decent Class A competition. It's still very, very good, and what you'd expect out of a legitimate Mr. Hockey candidate, but I don't know that it's impressive enough to hand him the award.
By comparison, Danny Mattson played 12 games against ranked teams and averaged 2.25 points per game. That difference isn't that bad when you consider Mattson's list includes teams like Edina, Minnetonka, Benilde, Hill-Murray, and St. Thomas Academy.
Anders Lee is similar in that nearly every game he played was against a ranked team, and he put up a lot of points, but he also had the most impressive supporting cast around him. I think it's a little hard to separate out how much of that production was Lee, and how much was Marshall Everson, or Connor Gaarder, or Brendan Baker.
Leddy's contributions are a bit harder to quantify since he is a defenseman, and perhaps that plays to his advantage. But there is denying that he is far and away the best player on one of the state's finest teams, and that he has led them to a great season.
All these players had great seasons, and thus, all of them are probably pretty close together. That's what will make this such a difficult choice.
Judging pro potential is a little trickier exercise, but I'd probably break it down like this:
1. Nick Leddy
2. Tyler Pitlick
3. Ben Hanowski
4. Danny Mattson
5. Anders Lee
This is the area that I think puts Leddy well over the top. In recent years, Minnesota always seems to have a defenseman taken in the first round of the draft, and this year, Leddy may go that high. And for good reason. Leddy is probably the state's most fluid skater, and has a dynamic all-around game that would translate well to the NHL level.
Pitlick is the youngest Mr. Hockey candidate, and probably the most raw, but after Leddy, if you asked me who out of this group would be in the NHL ten years from now, I'd probably say him. One thing that may hurt him, however, is that he isn't eligible for the NHL Draft until 2010, which means he maybe wasn't watched as closely as the rest of this group.
Hanowski is a real wildcard in this area. I'd imagine it was hard for scouts to get up to watch him that often, because most of his games were against competition too weak to draw many conclusions from. He was rated fairly high by NHL Central Scouting, but I'd imagine there are some mixed opinions out there, with some having him really high, and some having him much lower.
If Mattson were a little taller and a little heavier, he'd probably be getting way more attention. The pro game is moving more towards smaller, skilled players like him, but it's still an uphill battle for him. It's questionable whether he'll even play for North Dakota next season, or go to the USHL, which probably doesn't help his chances.
Lee got passed over in the draft last year, but now that he looks fully committed to hockey, a team may spend a later round draft pick on him. He's probably got NHL-caliber strength right now, which isn't something you can say for many players.
Another factor to look at would be a "career achievement" category, with what a player has done over his entire career. I don't know if this is something that is officially looked at, but probably plays in voters' minds. I'd rank them like this:
1. Ben Hanowski
2. Anders Lee
3. Danny Mattson
4. Nick Leddy
5. Marshall Everson
This is the one area that hurts Leddy and could tilt things towards Hanowski. Leddy has always been considered a tremendously talented player, but prior to this year, his Eden Praririe teams didn't really do much of note.
Hanowski on the other hand, has the state's all-time scoring record, and the previous record holder, Johnny Pohl, also won the Mr. Hockey Award, despite not being ranked very highly for the NHL Draft.
Lee has had an amazing career, playing in the state tournament five times and scoring a ton of points. Mattson has also had an amazing career, but never made it to St. Paul.
All in all, I think you have to give the award to Leddy. He's the state's best and brightest prospect, though I wouldn't be at all surprised, or disappointed, if the award went to Hanowski for everything he has done in his career at Little Falls and for what he's likely to do at St. Cloud and hopefully in the NHL. The other candidates have impressive resumes and deserve to be up there, but can't quite match Leddy or Hanowski.
0 recs |
8 comments
|
Email
Print
Comments
If you have to take stats with a grain of salt, you might as well throw them out entirely, because there are no amount of points he could score that would make his case for him. If 2.67 PPG against ranked opponents isn’t enough, if 19 points in three trips to the State Tournament isn’t enough (12 more than Lee could do in four trips), if 395 career points isn’t enough, then what is?
Basically, you and others are saying that because of where Ben’s parents settled down to raise a family, winning Mr. Hockey becomes an almost impossible acheivement because a handful of coaches and scouts were only able to watch a handful of Little Falls’ games. If that’s the case and Leddy wins it, then so be it, but I feel very sorry for Ben because he did all that he could possible do.
I was attempting to take stats out of it by pointing out that what he did against decent teams wasn’t all that different than what any exceptional player does against good teams.
I agree that stats aren’t worth much, but if we’re looking at it from purely talent and potential, Hanowski comes in a solid second to Leddy.
I’ve heard that a lot, but many times that’s from somebody who’s seen Ben three times and Leddy twenty times. I’ve heard it from people who’ve seen Leddy play a couple of times and have NEVER seen Hanowski play. I’ll admit I’ve only seen them each play on TV a couple of times each, but I don’t have a vote in this thing. If you’ve seen both of them play and equal amount of times and still think that Leddy is much better, then more power to you.
However, my wish is that this award honors posterity. That is, Hanowski will always have a place in MSHSL history. Leddy MAY as well, but if it’s not in the record books than it has to be at the next level. Hanowski could end up busting too, but nobody looking back at the award winners 20 years from now will wonder why he won the award over Leddy.
The question that gets the most debate is really: Which factor influences voters the most; Projection, Production, or Posterity? A lot of these guys are old, so I say it’s posterity.
by The Exiled One on Mar 9, 2009 12:13 PM PDT up reply actions
Mr . Hockey
The year Pohl broke the all time career points record he won the award.
The year Spehar broke the all time goals record he won the award
Hanowski did both this year. Enough said
Not Satisfied with Mediocrity.
Mr. Hockey
It is always interesting to see somebody act critical of the opinions of others when they have barely seen the players in question in their own right. To raise such a stink when somebody that has seen these guys play multiple times in person when you have little experience in that same vein is laughable. It makes the critic look like a complete tool.
If it was as simple as stats, we’d just have some senior from some podunk HS in the middle of nowhere winning the award most years since those types have the best chance to run up big stats while playing against inferior competition. That would pretty much eliminate every good player from the metro area from ever winning the award and it would make the award rather meaningless.
Hanowski is a fine player but if you put him in the metro area, he’d be just another of a number of players with 50 point seasons. Hardly worth the hype he gets. He would certainly be no better of a forward candidate than the Anders Lee, Tyler Pitlick or Marshall Everson types of players if he was in the metro. But those guys don’t get the benefit of playing the Little Sisters of the Poor most games nor do they have their coach classlessly putting his star player out late in the 5+ goal blowout games just so a guy can run up more points. Hanowski benefits from playing a joke schedule and garnering attention for numbers he wouldn’t even come close to approaching in any competitive suburban conference.
Anybody with any kind of eye for hockey talent can see why Leddy is special. Of course, that might mean you have to actually go see games. Leddy has a complete game. He can control a game on both ends of the rink.
How many times have you seen both of them play? How many times has Chris seen both of them play? Like I said before, “If you’ve seen both of them play and equal amount of times and still think that Leddy is much better, then more power to you.”
by The Exiled One on Mar 11, 2009 11:21 AM PDT up reply actions
Mr. Hockey
I think it is pretty clear who the winner should be after this weekend. Leddy was the dominant figure in his team’s championship run and he excelled against the highest level of opponents in the state. I stated before the tournament that Leddy is a great player on both ends of the rink and he proved it. He probably cemented himself as a late 1st round pick as well.
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
