I did not post any predictions for the 2024 NLL awards at the beginning of the season, as I usually do. So instead of going over my predictions and seeing how I did, I’ll go over the players I voted for at the end of the season and see how closely the other voters agreed with me. I’ll add the winner in bold.
Tom Borrelli Award
I have to talk about this one first. A couple of weeks ago, I was notified by the NLL that I had been nominated for the Tom Borrelli Award for Media Person of the Year. I have been writing about the NLL since about 2011 and I started at IL Indoor in 2012, so I’ve been technically eligible for this award for years, but there were so many better writers out there that it was not really on my “maybe I could realistically win this” radar. I thought the quality of the stuff I produced was pretty decent, but not up to the level that guys like Jake Elliott, Teddy Jenner, Stephen Stamp, Bob Chavez, and the like were producing, so I was neither surprised nor disappointed when no nominations came. We’re talking about the Oscar for Best Actor – I was in a blockbuster movie too, but credited as “Guy at bar” or “Second tall man”.
I am also under no delusions that my writing was what got me this nomination – from the comments I’ve received online, it was clearly my nllstats.com web site, which is quite popular among writers and broadcasters – my “competition” for this award. I’m totally fine with that. I’m very proud of nllstats.com, and I’m glad that people are getting use out of it and having fun with it.
Then I received word that I was one of the three finalists for the award. OK, now things are getting weird. A nomination is one thing – that could just have been one NLL exec who liked nllstats.com throwing a nomination my way. Definitely appreciated, but still just one guy. But being a finalist means that people (again, my “competition” plus a bunch of NLL execs) had to explicitly vote for me, and enough of them did that I ended up in the top three. Fellow finalist Teddy Jenner sent me a DM to congratulate me on this and when I congratulated him as well, I said that he was already a multiple winner of the Borrelli but I imagine it doesn’t get old. He said simply “Never gets old when your peers vote for you.” Truer words were never spoken.
On Monday morning, I received the email from the league announcing that Adam Levi was the winner of the 2024 Tom Borrelli Award. I wasn’t sure how disappointed I’d be if I didn’t win, and it turns out – not at all. OK, sure, truth be told I would have been happy to have won but honestly, Adam got my first place vote. I’m far happier for Adam than I am disappointed that I didn’t get it.
For anyone who nominated me, voted for me, or even just sent me a twitter DM, mention or like, thank you. Your support is truly appreciated.
So to be clear: being nominated was Awesome. Being a finalist was incredibly Awesome. And having my friend Adam win the award is also Awesome. Congratulations Adam, you are a very deserving winner.
Incidentally, my votes were:
- Adam Levi
- Jake Elliott
- Teddy Jenner
- Pat Gregoire
- Cooper Perkins
I honestly don’t know if other media people ever vote for themselves, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
MVP
- Nick Rose
- Connor Fields
- Dhane Smith
- Jake Withers
- Josh Byrne
I felt Rosey deserved the MVP but honestly, the next four could have been given in just about any order and I couldn’t have argued with it.
Goaltender of the Year
- Nick Rose
- Doug Jamieson
- Nick Damude
- Zach Higgins
- Chris Origlieri
A Goaltender of the Year award with no Vinc and no Del Bianco in the top five. You’re not going to see that often.
Defensive Player of the Year
- Mitch de Snoo
- Graeme Hossack
- Ryan Dilks
- Kyle Rubisch
- Holden Garlent
I honestly don’t know if Garlent was the fifth-best defender in the NLL this season. I just know that every time I watched the Rush, I found myself very impressed with his play.
Transition Player of the Year
- Jake Withers
- Zach Currier
- Shane Simpson
- Challen Rogers
- Ian MacKay
I didn’t consider the fact that Rogers missed a bunch of games, so he probably shouldn’t have been that high. My next vote would have gone to Ryan Terefenko.
Offensive Player of the Year
- Dhane Smith
- Josh Byrne
- Jeff Teat
- Connor Fields
- Wesley Berg
Yes, Byrne had an incredible season, but 100 assists? That’s just insane.
Rookie of the Year
- Alex Simmons
- Callum Jones
- Owen Grant
- Braydon Laity
- Tye Kurtz
Two ROY candidates on Albany and Vancouver? And Dyson Williams and Payton Cormier coming to each of them next year? Those teams are going to be very good for a while to come.
Sportsmanship Award
- Joe Resetarits
- Lyle Thompson
- Keegan Bal
- Jonathan Donville
- Will Malcom
These five players combined for ten penalty minutes last season. And Lyle Thompson, who won the award for the sixth straight year, had eight of them.
Les Bartley Award
- Curt Malawsky
- Glenn Clark
- Matt Sawyer
- Tracey Kelusky
- Dan Ladouceur
It came down to Malawsky vs. Clark for this one, and I felt confident in my decision at the end of the regular season. The award is solely based on the regular season (i.e. the voting is done before the playoffs start), but seeing the FireWolves in the finals makes me wonder if I had it backwards. I was also impressed with how Matt Sawyer changed things up mid-game a number of times this year. If the Rock had a tough first half, they frequently came out flying in the second with a slightly different game plan. It’s easy to say that a team that finishes 15-3 and has so many great players doesn’t need a great coach, but great coaching is a big part of why they were 15-3.
GM of the Year
- Glenn Clark
- Jamie Dawick
- Curt Malawsky
- Steve Dietrich
- Rich Lisk
The FireWolves surprised a lot of people this year, but Glenn Clark saw it coming. He’ll be the first to tell you that it happened a lot quicker than even he thought, but if you put a team like this together and jump from 3-15 one year to the NLL finals the next, you fully deserve this award.
NLL Chatter 