Bomber forward Cole Duperreault and head coach and general manager Mike Reagan have both been nominated for SJHL year-end awards.
Duperreault was one of three players announced as nominees for the SJHL's player of the year award March 3, along with Battlefords North Stars forwards Kian Bell and Holden Doell.
Despite being injured for the past couple of weeks, Duperreault still leads the Bombers in scoring with 64 points this season, including 37 goals, putting him fourth in the league scoring race. The 20-year-old Martensville, Sask. native, now in his third season as a Bomber, has played a key role on the Bombers' top line and on the team's powerplay, still ranked as the league's best. Duperreault leads the SJHL with 18 powerplay goals and 31 powerplay points.
Bell has been the SJHL's most potent scorer this year, cracking the 50 goal mark in late February and leading the league in scoring with 91 points through 46 games. Doell, Duperreault's former U18 linemate with the Beardy's Blackhawks, has been neck-and-neck with Bell for the league scoring lead, sitting as of March 3 with 90 points - including 62 assists - in 44 games.
Reagan was also nominated as one of three candidates for the league's coach of the year honour, along with Battlefords' Brayden Klimosko and Nipawin's Tad Kozun. Through 52 games so far this season, Reagan has coached the Bombers to a 35-13-2-2 record, good enough for second in the league as of March 3.
Klimosko has led the Stars to a 44-4-2-1 record this year (as of March 3) and most of the season in top spot in the CJHL's top 20 rankings - Kozun, in his first full season behind the Hawks' bench, sports a 25-22-4-1 record on the year.
Two of the SJHL's three MVP award nominations went to Battlefords North Stars, with Bell and Doell also receiving nominations. The third nominee was Weyburn's Ryley Morgan, who has 61 points in 49 games for a red-hot Red Wings team.
Former Bomber Jaxon Martens was one of three players named as finalists for the league's most sportsmanlike player, along with Zander Stewart from Nipawin and the Kindersley Klippers' Tylin Hilbig. Martens was traded from the Bombers to the Melville Millionaires at this year's trade deadline and has 44 points in 50 games this season, including 29 points in 33 games played in maroon and white.
The league's nominations for defenceman of the year went to Battlefords' Tynan Ewart, Nipawin's Stewart and Daylan Weigel of the Humboldt Broncos. Ewart leads all SJHL defencemen in scoring with 51 points through 50 games, while Stewart has 41 points in 49 games and Weigel has 38 points in 49 games.
Snubs
Perhaps as big a story as Duperreault, Martens and Reagan's nominations were a pair of possible snubs of Bomber players in the nominations. Forward Alexi Sylvestre and goalie Harmon Laser-Hume did not receive nominations in the rookie of the year and goalie of the year categories, despite having had statistically better seasons than several nominees.
The rookie of the year finalists were named as Riley Ashe of the Melfort Mustangs, Carsten Kayter of the Humboldt Broncos and the Yorkton Terriers' Dylan Ruptash. Ashe, 17, has 38 points in 51 games this season with the Mustangs and has a scholarship coming from the Univ. of Nebraska-Omaha, while Kayter, a 16-year-old defenceman also committed to the Univ. of Nebraska-Omaha, has 29 points in 48 games with Humboldt. Ruptash, a 19-year-old Edmonton native, has 37 points in 51 games with Yorkton this season.
Sylvestre, an 18-year-old forward from Chateauguay, Quebec and recently named as the league's top rookie for the month of February, has outscored all three nominees this season, sitting at 40 points through 52 games. Sylvestre also has 20 goals this season, good enough for second in SJHL rookie goals behind only Ruptash.
In the goalie of the year category, Estevan's Cam Hrdlicka, Battlefords North Star Josh Kotai and La Ronge Ice Wolf Dawson Smith were nominated for the honour. Hrdlicka, who backed up the Bruins during their run to the league title against the Bombers last season, has a 21-15-0-0 record, a 2.92 goals-against-average (GAA), a .914 save percentage and five shutouts. Kotai has a pair of shutouts and a sterling 30-3-2-1 record with the Stars, a 2.39 GAA and a .935 save percentage. Smith has a 17-10-2-2 record, a .931 save percentage and a GAA of 2.54.
Laser-Hume was not nominated despite having a 26-10-2-2 record (having more wins than both Hrdlicka and Smith) a .914 save percentage (equal to Smith's), four shutouts (more than both Kotai and Smith) and a 2.51 GAA (lower than both Hrdlicka's and Smith's).
In head-to-head competition against the three nominated goalies, Laser-Hume has a 5-3-1-1 record, beating Smith and Hrdlicka twice each and Kotai once, shutting out the Stars last month. The Bomber goalie has also played more minutes than any other SJHL goalie this season.
