Team MVPs and other team awards

[overpass]

Several NHL teams have given out team awards at the end of the season. Sometimes voted by writers and sometimes by players. It might be interesting to post them here.

I compiled team end of season awards from the Detroit Red Wings over Gordie Howe's career. The Windsor Daily Star (later the Windsor Star) usually published an article about the awards. In total, the following awards were given out.

Team MVP (voted by Detroit hockey writers)
Most goals (based on stats)
Most points (based on stats)
Best sportsmanship (aka the local Lady Byng)
Best rookie
Best defenceman
Three star award (for the player who had the most three star points in home games)
Unsung hero (named and awarded by the local fan club)
Players award - awarded by the players to one of their own. This one seems to have been a bit of a joke award, awarded to the "best actor under duress or injury", and it was a "handsome cup topped by a hockey player who was hoisting a large bull over his shoulder". I know they continued to award it through the end of the 60s but the papers stopped reporting the winner.

The first four awards above go back to 1945-46. The others were added at various points during the 50s and 60s. The yearly news article about the awards didn't always name the winner of the more minor awards, so these records are incomplete. The only one for which I have full records is the team MVP. I won't bother listing the leading goal and point scorer as those were based on easily available stats.

Detroit Red Wings team awards

Season	MVP	Most sportmanlike	Best rookie	Three-star Selection Cup	Best defenceman	Unsung Hero	Players' Award
1945-46	Bill Quackenbush	Carl Liscombe
1946-47	Ted Lindsay	Bill Quackenbush
1947-48	Sid Abel
1948-49	Sid Abel
1949-50	Sid Abel	Red Kelly
1950-51	Red Kelly	Red Kelly
1951-52	Gordie Howe
1952-53	Gordie Howe
1953-54	Red Kelly
1954-55	Bob Goldham	Earl Reibel					Ted Lindsay
1955-56	Gordie Howe	Marty Pavelich	Glenn Hall			Marcel Pronovost	Alex Delvecchio
1956-57	Gordie Howe
1957-58	Gordie Howe	Alex Delvecchio	Billy Dea			Al Arbour	coach Jimmy Skinner
1958-59	Gordie Howe	Alex Delvecchio		Gordie Howe		Warren Godfrey	Norm Ullman
1959-60	Gordie Howe	Gary Aldcorn	Murray Oliver	Gordie Howe		Norm Ullman	Terry Sawchuk
1960-61	Gordie Howe	Norm Ullman	Hank Bassen	Gordie Howe		Pete Goegan
1961-62	Gordie Howe		Bruce MacGregor		Bill Gadsby	Val Fonteyne	Vic Stasiuk
1962-63	Gordie Howe	Parker MacDonald	Doug Barkley		Bill Gadsby	Doug Barkley	Marcel Pronovost
1963-64	Terry Sawchuk	Bruce MacGregor	Pit Martin		Marcel Pronovost	Andre Pronovost
1964-65	Norm Ullman	Alex Delvecchio	Roger Crozier	Roger Crozier	Marcel Pronovost	Floyd Smith
1965-66	Gordie Howe	Alex Delvecchio	Bert Marshall		Doug Barkley
1966-67	Gordie Howe	Ted Hampson	Not awarded	Henderson/Howe/Ullman	Gary Bergman	Ted Hampson
1967-68	Gordie Howe	Alex Delvecchio	Gary Jarrett/Roy Edwards	Gordie Howe	Gary Bergman	Alex Delvecchio
1968-69	Gordie Howe	Alex Delvecchio	Poul Popiel	Frank Mahovlich	Bob Baun
1969-70	Roy Edwards	Wayne Connelly	Al Karlander	Gordie Howe	Carl Brewer
1970-71	Gordie Howe	Alex Delvecchio	Tom Webster	Gordie Howe		trainer Lefty Wilson

Team MVPs
15 times - Gordie Howe
3 times - Sid Abel
2 times - Red Kelly
1 time - Bill Quackenbush, Ted Lindsay, Bob Goldham, Terry Sawchuk, Norm Ullman, Roy Edwards

Alex Delvecchio was a 7 time winner for best sportsmanship. Of the 9 seasons I found the winner for most 3 star selection points, Howe won 6 times and shared it once, Mahovlich and Crozier each won once, and Ullman and Henderson split it with Howe once.

Coach Jimmy Skinner won the players' award in 1957-58 for injuring his groin in a bench melee with Boston's Fern Flaman on February 17, 1958.

Any surprises?

• Defenceman Bill Quackenbush over Harry Lumley and Jack Stewart in 1945-46 is a surprise. Lumley and Stewart were 4th and 5th in Hart voting.
• Ted Lindsay winning MVP in 46-47 when he was 4th in team scoring, and then losing the next three to Sid Abel is also unexpected.
• Red Kelly beat Gordie Howe in 50-51, when Howe won the Hart. Overall, only two MVPs for Howe from 50-51 through 54-55 is strange. Imagine if Connor McDavid only won two team MVPs in a five year stretch!
• Defensive ace Bob Goldham's career year in 54-55 managed to get an MVP in a down year for Howe.
• No surprise that Howe dominated the team MVP voting for almost two decades. Terry Sawchuk beating him out in 63-64 is a bit of a surprise, another case where local writers didn't agree with the leaguewide voting.
• For best defenceman, Marcel Pronovost managed to win two against tough competition from the older Gadsby and the younger Barkley. And veteran Bob Baun's win in 68-69 over Gary Bergman wasn't what you would expect if you looked at the stats.

Click to read more...

 

[VanIslander]

Sawchuk only once.

And that was in '64, way after the dynasty, not one of the 5 times he led the league in wins.

It was his last year in Detroit, when the team finished 4th... in a 6-team league.

 

[The Panther]

Yeah, as a kid, I remember the Oilers giving out these team awards in the final home game of each season. (I remember Jari Kurri being team MVP in 1989, for example.)

I wonder where there is a list of these... you'd think each club's website would list them somewhere.

 

[pnep]

Yeah, as a kid, I remember the Oilers giving out these team awards in the final home game of each season. (I remember Jari Kurri being team MVP in 1989, for example.)

I wonder where there is a list of these... you'd think each club's website would list them somewhere.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

pnep delivers as usual

@The Panther as an Oilers fan, could you shine light on why the Unsung Hero-award wasn’t awarded in 2000-01. As simple as every hero ultimately having been sung, or no one really deserved another song besides the already sung heroes?

 

[The Panther]

I sometimes wonder if @pnep isn't actually some kind of hockey-God living in another dimension... He exists to tantalize us mere mortals with his pearls of historical and statistical riches.

pnep delivers as usual

@The Panther as an Oilers fan, could you shine light on why the Unsung Hero-award wasn’t awarded in 2000-01. As simple as every hero ultimately having been sung, or no one really deserved another song besides the already sung heroes?

I do not know. (In 2000-01, I was living on a subtropical island and chasing as many girls as I could.)

 

[overpass]

Philadelphia Flyers team awards are listed here.

Flyers History - Team Awards

All Time Philadelphia Flyer Team Awards

www.flyershistory.com

 

[kaiser matias]

The Canucks team awards:

List of Vancouver Canucks award winners - Wikipedia