Friday Faceoff: Debating The PHF MVP Award

For the first time ever, the Professional Hockey Writer's Association voted for the PHF's most valuable player award. The Hockey News' Erin Brown and Ian Kennedy are members of the PHWA, and were two of the inaugural voters for the award. The duo picked the same three players...in reverse order. They discuss why, and add a few names who deserve recognition.

Ian Kennedy: We were both voting members of the PHWA, who for the first time got to vote, like they do for the NHL awards, on the MVP award for the PHF. It was such a cool move toward equity. I know we’ve both discussed we’d love to see that expand to include the PWHPA whether it’s for a tour or league as well. Funny enough on our first PHF ballots, you and I completely cancelled each other out. My ballot was 1. Loren Gabel, 2. Kennedy Marchment, and 3. Corinne Schroeder, yours was the exact opposite. Gabel was just such an elite scorer that broke games open in my eyes, a shooter like the league hasn’t had in recent years. But you went with Schroeder. Care to state your position?

Erin Brown: I feel like goaltenders don’t get the attention they deserve even when they have great years by netminding standards. Schroeder had a dominant season and shattered PHF records — 19 wins and 7 shutouts. Her .955 save percentage and 1.67 goals-against average far surpassed Amanda Leveille’s second-ranked marks of .923 and 2.43, respectively. When looking at pro goalies in North America, Sweden and Finland, Schroeder’s numbers were among the Top 5 in the world among goalies who played in at least a dozen games, and Schroeder saw action in 22. You could argue Schroeder played behind a great Boston Pride team — she did — but whenever a team can trust in its goalie, it helps open up the offense, in my opinion. I think Gabel’s offense got a tiny boost from Schroder’s play. Even that is seen in the stats — the goalie picked up two assists, both on Gabel goals. Why did you have Marchment ahead of Schroeder?

Ian Kennedy: To me, with two Boston players there, only one can be the most valuable player to a team, because the award represents the league, but also individual impact on a team. I think there could be an argument that Marchment had a greater individual impact on her team than Gabel, so for me, it was close. Marchment played power play, she killed penalties, she’s Connecticut’s first line centre, and she was in on 42% of Connecticut’s goals. Gabel edged her on this at 43% and was 12 points ahead of Boston’s next highest scorer, Jillian Dempsey, and 18 points ahead of their third leading scorer Jillian Dempsey. That tells me she drove a ton of offence herself this season. It’s hard to argue with Schroeder’s excellence, in fact, as you said, without her, Boston can’t play their freewheeling style, because the team struggled defensively often. Five times this year, the Pride faced 47 or more shots, which is way too much, and they only lost one of those games, that’s all Schroeder.

How did you place Marchment ahead of Gabel?

Erin Brown: For me it was all the things you mentioned, plus the federation-leading six game-winners and her 18-game point streak to close the regular season. She extended that to 20 in the playoffs, but we had voted by then. The Whale battled to stay above .500 for most of the season and burst into the playoffs with a six-game win streak. Marchment scored two game-winners and set up another during that stretch. Ten of her 35 points came the last quarter of the season — when Connecticut needed her most. Boston was well on its way to the postseason at this point, so Marchment’s push at the end gave her the slight edge over Gabel.

Ian, the ballot for the Hart Trophy requires five picks. Let’s round out our last two honorable mentions. I’ll go with Toronto’s Brittany Howard who scored 16 goals in 20 games and Boston’s Jillian Dempsey who converted on 21 percent of her shots! How about you?

Ian Kennedy: Howard is a great pick from Toronto, and I completely agree, but to give a different name some love, I’m going to go with perhaps a less heralded Toronto Six player, Shiann Darkangelo. I realize I’m going completely off the board. Howard finished fourth in PHWA voting and Darkangelo didn’t receive a vote, but hear me out. She was second on the Six, one point behind Howard in scoring, albeit in more games, but Darkangelo did a lot of things to lead that team to an Isobel Cup. Darkangelo is the first line center in Toronto, and she finished with the top face-off percentage in the league at .612, while taking the most draws of any player. That’s responsibility from coach Geraldine Heaney. I know MVP is heavily tied to scoring, but that shouldn't be the only determinant, and Darkangelo’s all-around impact can’t be overlooked. For my other, I’ll turn back to Buffalo’s Mikyla Grant-Mentis. Buffalo had a tough season, but with MGM, it would have been a completely lost year. She was their top player night in and night out, and did so much single handedly to keep that team in games.