Well, I guess you could say I'm a bit surprised, but I learned tonight that Wisconsin has nominated Brendan Smith over Blake Geoffrion for the WCHA Player of the Year.First of all, I'm surprised at the stupidity of the voting process. Why on earth would you have to nominate a player, and at that, only one player. I think it's fair to say that Wisconsin, as well as a couple of other schools like Duluth and Denver, have more than one candidate worthy of consideration.
In my opinion, the voters should simply write in their selection and not have to chose from a list. Granted, there is a write in possibility for the MVP, but if your own team didn't nominate you, do you honestly think the voters are going to? I doubt it.
Through twitter tonight I had communication with a few of the voters of the award. Brad Elliott Schlossman from the Grand Forks Herald said that his vote came down to Geoffrion and Denver goaltender Marc Cheverie. In the end he chose Cheverie. Bruce Ciske, Minnesota-Duluth radio announcer said that he would have to seriously consider Geoffrion if he was on the ballot. That alone proves that teams only being able to nominate one person is a joke.
For reference, each team gets 1 head coach, 2 asst coaches, 2 captains, 2 media and 1 SID to vote for all WCHA teams.
I honestly would be shocked if Blake does not get at least some write in votes for player of the year. But him not being on the ballot has absolutely killed his chances of winning the award.
I don't think that Brendan is a terrible choice, in fact I think he would be a good choice, I just think that Blake would have had a better chance at winning the award. Geoffrion is the captain and emotional leader of the Badgers, he's our first line centerman, plays on our top power play, plays on the penalty kill, and he's the WCHA's leading scorer.
Here are the official candidates for the WCHA Player of the Year:
Marc Cheverie (G)-Denver
Brendan Smith (D)-Wisconsin
Bill Sweatt (F)-Colorado College
Jack Connolly (F)-Minnesota-Duluth
Ryan Lasch (F)-St. Cloud State
Chris VandeVelde (F)-North Dakota
Here are the official candidates for the WCHA Rookie of the Year:
Nick Leddy (D)-Minnesota
Craig Smith (F)-Wisconsin
Matt Donovan (D)-Denver
Steven Seigo (D)-Michigan Tech
Dylan Olsen (D)-Minnesota-Duluth
Danny Kristo (F)-North Dakota
Rylan Schwartz (F)-Colorado College
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