The Alliance of European Hockey Clubs held its eighth annual Fenix Outdoor European Hockey Awards 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.
Among the winners were Jonathan Lekkerimäki as Fjällräven Young Player of the Year and Valtteri Filppula, recipient of the Warrior Career Excellence Award.
Young Player of the Year is essentially a U22 award – that means this season, players born in 2002 or later were eligible. Other nominees for the award were Ville Koivunen of Kärpät Oulu, Jani Nyman of Ilves Tampere, Axel Sandin-Pellikka of Skellefteå AIK and Jiří Ticháček of Rytíři Kladno. Past winners include William Wallinder, Elmer Söderblom, Moritz Seider, Nils Lundkvist, Aleksi Heponiemi, Elias Pettersson and Kirill Kaprizov.
“I think I’ve seen all of them play on highlights. There are a lot of good players on the list, especially Elias Pettersson,” said Lekkerimäki, who might be Pettersson’s teammate before too long.
The Career Excellence Award is pretty much how it sounds – a lifetime achievement award. The other nominees were Roman Červenka of the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, Beat Forster of EHC Biel-Bienne, Linus Omark of Luleå HF and Martin Růžička of Oceláři Třínec. Past winners include Andres Ambühl, Jaromír Jágr, Joel Lundqvist, Michael Wolf and Riikka Välilä.
“I think it’s a testament to being able to do something right for a long period of time,” said Filppula. “That’s probably what I’m most proud of about my career – that I’ve been able to play for a long time and have some success as well.”
Asked about Lekkerimäki, Filppula answered, “I don’t know too much about his career but I did see a bit of him during the World Juniors. Hopefully, he stays healthy and has a long career in the NHL.”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w97tJSNO6Y[/embed]
Other winners were Robert Ohlsson of Skellefteå AIK earning Globetrotter Coach of the Year, Czech team Oceláři Třinec winning Hanwag Club of the Year for winning its fifth straight Extraliga title, Slovak club Berani Banská Bystrica winning the Kanken Youth Retention Award, and Straubing Tigers CEO Gaby Sennebogen winning the E.H.C. Leadership Award.