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Kane Receives Sporting News Rookie Of The Year Award... And Other Results |
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Awards from the Sporting News just released through the Blackhawks Media Department.
Sporting News Announces 2008 NHL awards
Patrick Kane Named Rookie of the Year
St. Louis – Alex Ovechkin, LW, Washington Capitals, has been named the 2008 NHL Player of the Year by Sporting News. Ballots were sent to players on all 30 teams, and Ovechkin received 250 out of a possible 287 votes for the league¹s highest player honor. Penguins center Evgeni Malkin finished second with 18 votes.
Ovechkin, 22, scored 65 goals this season, the most by an NHL player since 1996, won the Art Ross Trophy with 112 points and led a charge by the Capitals from last place to a Southeast Division title.
Rookie of the year is Patrick Kane, RW, of the Chicago Blackhawks. Kane, 19, is one of two reasons the Blackhawks improved to 40-34-8 (Chicago was 31-42-9 last season) and missed the playoffs by only three points; rookie center Jonathan Toews is the other.
Kane, who piled up 72 points (21 goals, 51 assists) and edged Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom (69 points) for rookie scoring honors, received 110 of 287 votes to edge Backstrom (74) and Toews (69) as the top rookie.
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock is the Coach of the Year. It looked so easy when Babcock¹s Wings bolted to a 41-10-4 record and appeared ready to challenge for a spot among the best single-season point totals in NHL history. But injuries ravaged the defense, a goalie controversy arose and the team went into a 1-8-2 February funk. Babcock stayed positive, righted the ship and picked up six of the 18 votes cast by his fellow coaches, one more than Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau.
Sporting News Executive of the Year honors go to Bob Gainey, Executive VP-General Manager of the Canadiens. Gainey maintained his faith in veteran right winger Alexei Kovalev, resisted the free-agent urge and refused to trade the talented core of young players he calls “our assets.” His loyalty and unwavering belief in his team’s draft picks and farm system paid huge dividends when the youthful Canadiens won their first division title in 16 years and posted an Eastern Conference-best 104 points. Gainey received 12 of the 28 votes cast by fellow executives. Finishing second was Red Wings Executive Vice President/GM, Ken Holland with six votes.
SPORTING NEWS 2008 All-STAR TEAM
C Evgeni Malkin, Penguins
LW Alex Ovechkin, Capitals
RW Jarome Iginla, Flames
D Nicklas Lidstrom, Red Wings
D Mike Green, Capitals
G Martin Brodeur, Devils
Winners were determined by a vote of their peers, and all voting was conducted before the playoffs. Individuals could not vote for themselves, and players could not vote for teammates.
The Sporting News NHL awards appear in the May 26 issue of the magazine and on the website at www.sportingnews.com.
Tags: Blackhawks NHL
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