The Giants awards dinner took place last night and for the 4th time in team history the club MVP weas a goalie (Mike Bales, Martin Klempa and Stevie Lyle were the others). Stephen Murphy won the fans vote for his part in leading the team to a second place finish in the league title which included him racking up a club record 8 shutouts over the course of the season. On the night, Murphy also announced he would be returning next season which is a welcome early piece of news for next years line-ups.

The other standout awards was the Coaches player and players player awards, both won by Brandon Benedict. I remember Dave Matsos once said, upon winning the players player of the year award in 2003, that it means that little bit more to get voted as the best player by you’re follow team-mates. For Benedict to win both the players player award and coaches player award says a lot.

Below is a list of all the awards and although I didn’t see any games this year in person, going by the reaction of some fans I have talked to, nobody is too upset with the outcome.

Award winners:
Fans MVP — Stephen Murphy
Leading Scorer — Colin Shields
Fan Favourite Award — Sean McMorrow
Best Defenceman — Tim Cook
Best Forward — Colin Shields
Unsung Hero — Michael Jacobsen
Most Improved Player — Craig Peacock
Coach’s Player of the Year — Brandon Benedict
Player’s Player of the Year — Brandon Benedict

All-Time team MVP:
2000/01 — Shane Johnson, D
2001/02 — Mike Bales, G
2002/03 — Robby Sandrock, D
2003/04 — Jason Ruff, LW
2004/05 — Martin Klempa, G
2005/06 — Theoren Fleury, C
2006/07 — Jason Ruff, LW
2007/08 — Stevie Lyle, G
2008/09 — Paul Deniset, C
2009/10 — Stephen Murphy, G

While the fans of the EIHL are getting loaded up on booze in various watering holes across Nottingham city centre on the Friday night of the playoff weekend, the great and the good of the EIHL and those who were willing to shell out on a ticket, will be at a venue in the city to see who gets awarded what for their play this season at the EIHL awards dinner.

There are eight awards up for grabs and four Giants players have been nominated. Colin Shields is in for three awards with Colin Murphy up for two. Jeff Szwez and Tim Cook are in for one award each, so the Giants are well represented. Actually, there should be five Giants players in for awards but more on that at the bottom of this blog.

Here are the shortlists for each award:

Goalie of the Year
Peter Hirsch (Coventry), Stephen Murphy (Belfast), Cody Rudkowsky (Edinburgh).

Defenseman of the Year
Tim Cook (Belfast), Wes Jarvis (Cardiff), Jonathan Weaver (Coventry).

Forward of the Year
Greg Chambers (Coventry), Luke Fulghum (Coventry), Colin Shields (Belfast).

British Player of the Year
Stephen Murphy (Belfast), Colin Shields (Belfast), Jonathan Weaver (Coventry).

Newcomer of the Year
Owen Fussey (Edinburgh), Cameron Mann (Nottingham), Jeff Szwez (Belfast).

Elite League MVP
Greg Chambers (Coventry), Luke Fulghum (Coventry), Colin Shields (Belfast).

Coach of the Year
Doug Christiansen (Edinburgh), Corey Neilson (Nottingham), Paul Thompson (Coventry).

‘The Sean McMorrow’ fans Favorite*
Jade Galbraith (Nottingham), Luke Fulghum (Coventry), Colin Shields (Belfast).

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Theo Fleury has won the websites three star contest for the 05-06 season. I ran the contest for personal interest sake throughout the season to generate a chart of the best preformers for the Giants over the course of the season and I kept the results on the website for all to see. In the style of NHL man-of-the-match awards I gave three star ratings to the Giants players for each game of the season. Home games were judged by personal viewings of games, while away games are judged by media reports of games and the feedback from travelling fans. First star earns a player five points, second star gets three points and third star receives one point.In the end Theo Fleury dominated the contest with 78 points in all, 23 ahead of second place George Awada who beat Mike Minard into third place by 6 points. At home Theo was also the most dominant with 46 points, almost double the points of second placed Mike Minard who scored 24. Awada was tied third here with player coach Ed Courtenay with 23 points. On the road it was the Captain who showed his worth when he tied Fleury for 32 points with Ed Courtenay on 26 and Minard and Huppe on 25.The contest will run again next year in some format, with members of the site likely getting the oportunity to vote for the three stars of the game if it proves to have enough interest.Below is a list of the top 6. Visit the main site for full results.

#—–NAME————–POS——TOT—-AWAY—-HOME
14—-Theo Fleury———C——-78——46——32
41—-George Awada——-RW——-55——23——32
34—-Mike Minard———G——-49——24——25
71—-Ed Courtenay——-RW——-49——23——26
39—-Curtis Huppe——-LW——-36——11——25
12—-Shawn Skiehar——LW——-34——25——-9

Martin Klempa swept the board at the Awards night on Monday, picking up two of the three major awards on the evening.

He started out by winning the award that is held in the highest regard by players – the player’s player of the year. Always a major honour to be voted the MVP by your fellow players Martin was an easy winner of the award.

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On Tuesday night the Giants held their Anual end of season dinner and awards night. It was a buffet meal which was delicious with about 25 tables filled with players and fans.  Read More»