The 2018-19 Pony Award Winners! #OHL

Welcome to the 3rd annual Pony Awards! Our awards we hand out to Barrie Colts players following the regular season. This year we have brought back the same awards as last season but have included a new award. The Lucas Chiodo Award will be awarded to the most sportsmanlike player on the team, as voted by the site contributors. 

Here is how the selections are made. Each contributor was to list 3 players in order of who they felt should win each award. After the votes were made, we assigned a number to each vote. 1st selection earned 3 points, 2nd earned 2 and 3rd earned 1. We tallied up the results to come up with the winner and the player with the most points won and the runner ups made the honourable mentions category. The only award that is not decided this way is the Joseph Blandisi Award which was selected by YOU in an online vote. 

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

The Lucas Chiodo Award: Most Sportsmanlike Player

Congratulations to Ryan Suzuki on being the first recipient of the Lucas Chiodo Award. The Contributors all had Suzuki as their top-pick for this award. This season, Suzuki played in 65 games and only served 14 penalty minutes.  While there were a couple players who took fewer penalties, we considered the fact that in comparison, Suzuki played more minutes.

Honourable mentions: Tyson Foerster, Sam Rhodes and Jacob Tortora. 

The Aaron Ekblad Award: Rookie of the Year

Congratulations to Jet Greaves on winning the Aaron Ekblad award as the Rookie of the Year! Another unanimous selection by the contributors. Greaves finished the season with a 3.36 GAA and an impressive 0.911 SAV% which was 8th sixth best in the league among goalies who played more than 25 games.

Honourable Mentions: Tyson Foerster and Riley Piercey.
Last Years Winner: Andrei Svechnikov.

The Colin Behenna Award: Most Improved Player

Congratulations to Mathew Hill on winning the Colin Behenna Award as the Most Improved Player. Hill was selected as the top-pick by our contributors. This season, Hill played 65 games and posted 2 goals and 11 assists. His +7 was tied for the best plus/minus on the Roster with Ryan Suzuki and Matej Pekar. Hill really improved his defensive game this season while showing signs of offensive skill as well. His stick work was what really stood out and he displayed huge improvements at getting puck control and clearing the zone.

Honourable Mentions: Tyler Tucker and Ben Hawerchuk. 
Last Years Winner: Jaden Peca.

The Lunch Nadato Award: Hardest Hitter

Congratulations to Tyler Tucker on the back-to-back Luch Nasato awards. This was another unanimous vote by our team. The Colts didn't lack players willing to throw big hits and the OHL coaches poll agreed with us having named him the best hitter in the Eastern Conference. 

Honourable Mentions: Aidan Brown and Christopher Cameron.

Last Years Winner: Tyler Tucker.

The Mark Scheifele Award: Most Valuable Player

Congratulations to Ryan Suzuki on winning the Mark Scheifele award as the teams MVP. Suzuki earned two top votes in this category. He led the Ponies with 75 points and totalled 50 assists. Heading into the OHL draft, there are no signs of Suzuki slowing down his game and he will be a huge part of the Barrie Colts moving forward. 

Honourable Mentions: Tyler Tucker and Jet Greaves.

Last Years Winner: Aaron Luchuk.

The Joseph Blandisi Award: Fan Favourite

Congratulations to Riley Piercey on winning the fan vote for the Joseph Blandisi Award. Piercey is the only other player to earn this award after former captain Justin Murray captured it the last two seasons. There were a total of 666 votes and Piercey made up for 21.77% of them. He scored 3 goals and 11 assists this year. 

Honourable Mentions: Matthew Sredl and Dalton Duhart.

Last Years Winner: Justin Murray.

Thank you to everyone who voted and to this year's winner! I would also like to thank the contributors for not only helping get this post together again this year but also all of their hard work.