The Alliance of European Hockey Clubs held its annual awards night gala in Prague on Wednesday, presenting awards for the best young player, best coach, and best club, among others.

Taking the Fjällräven Young Player of the Year Award – which goes to the best U-23 player in Europe during the season – was 20-year-old Skelleftea AIK defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka, who was named the best defenseman at the World Juniors for the second year in a row, and in the SHL was ninth in d-man scoring.

Amazingly, Sandin-Pellikka is the third Detroit Red Wings prospect in the last four years to win the award, following Moritz Seider in 2021, Elmer Söderblom in 2022 and William Wallinder in 2023.

“I played with Wallinder and Söderblom at the end of the season (in Grand Rapids),” said Sandin-Pellikka. After he found out he won the award, he said, “I asked Wallinder a little bit about it and he was like, ‘You’ve gotta give a speech in front of 200 people,’ and I was like, ‘What?’”

For the award, Sandin-Pellikka edged out a pair of Montreal Canadiens prospects – Finn Oliver Kapanen of Timrå IK and Austrian Vinzenz Rohrer of the Zurich Lions – and a pair of undrafted goaltenders – 19-year-old Finn Petteri Rimpinen and 22-year-old Swiss Kevin Pasche.

Other past Young Players of the Year include Kirill Kaprizov, Elias Pettersson, Aleksi Heponiemi, Nils Lundqvist and last year’s winner, Jonathan Lekkerimäki of the Vancouver Canucks.

Roman Červenka – the long-time captain of the Czech national team and the IIHF Male Player of the Year last year – won the Warrior Award, which is a lifetime achievement award whose past winners include Valtteri Filppula, Andres Ambühl, Joel Lundqvist and Jaromír Jágr.

The Globetrotter Coach of the Year was former NHL player Raimo Helminen, who took Finnish club SaiPa Lappeenranta from last place to the Liiga finals in one season. The ZSC Lions from Zurich, Switzerland, who won the Champions Hockey League and their second-straight National League title this past season, were the Hanwag Club of the Year.

Other winners were Norwegian club Jar Idrettslag, which won the Känken Youth Retention Award and Fredi Pargätzi, who was a member of the Spengler Cup organizing committee for 25 years and won the EHC Leadership Award.

European Hockey Awards: Jonathan Lekkerimäki & Valtteri Filppula among winners The Alliance of European Hockey Clubs held its <a href="https://www.eurohockeyclubs.com/news/winners-announced-for-2024-fenix-outdoor-euro-hockey-awards">eighth annual Fenix Outdoor European Hockey Awards</a> on Tuesday at the Stages Hotel in Prague, just a stone’s throw from O2 Arena, the main site of the recent IIHF World Championship.