Screaming Eagles hand out hardware at 20th Annual Awards Banquet
The Membertou Trade and Convention Centre played host to the 20th annual Cape Breton Screaming Eagles award banquet on Monday night. Players were honoured in 12 categories and the biggest winners were Giovanni Fiore, Phélix Martineau, and Olivier LeBlanc.
Fiore was named both the Cape Breton Beverages Ltd. Most Valuable Player as well as the Casino Nova Scotia leading scorer award winner. While there are still five games remaining in the regular season, with 80 points in 56 games, Fiore has a twenty point lead over the Eagles’ second highest point getter, Massimo Carozza. Fiore, a 20 year old in his final Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season, came to Cape Breton via a trade from Shawinigan during the 2015-16 season.
Another of the Eagles’ overage players, captain LeBlanc, claimed two awards to himself and shared another. LeBlanc earned the Eastlink Trophy as the team’s top defenseman as well as the Greg Lynch Memorial Award (given to the player best exhibiting leadership). The native of Québec City has played two and a half seasons in Cape Breton after a trade from Saint John, and this year has 40 points in 53 games with a +5 rating. LeBlanc shared the Tim Hortons Trophy, awarded for outstanding community involvement, with 19 year old forward Ty Fournier. Fournier is in his second season after being acquired from Victoriaville and has 37 points in 61 games.
Fellow 19 year old winger, Martineau, was a big winner, taking home both the Cape Breton University Trophy (as the top academic player) and the Tokyo Lloyd MacDonald Memorial Trophy (for outstanding work ethic). Martineau also captured the 94.9 The Cape Trophy, voted on by fans as the most popular player. The native of Terrebonne is the longest tenured current Screaming Eagle, drafted by the club in 2014, and has collected 44 points over 60 contests this season.
Rookie defenseman Adam McCormick also captured multiple honours- the Jim Hawkins Memorial Trophy as the club’s humanitarian of the year, and the MacLeod-Lorway Insurance Trophy as the most improved player. This season McCormick has been in the spotlight off and on the ice, campaigning for organ donorship as his mother Audrey awaits a long transplant. On the ice he has notched 19 points in 47 games, seeing increased ice time as the year has gone on with injuries and player movement on the backend.
Drake Batherson and Vasily Glotov were also award winners. The 18 year old Batherson was awarded the Rudderham’s Source For Sports Trophy, as the rookie of the year, as the forward leads all North American rookies in the QMJHL with 49 points in 56 games. Glotov, a 19 year old forward who is a draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres, was named the winner Bobby Joe Ryan Memorial Trophy as the most sportsmanlike player. In his first season in North America, the Russian has 48 points 59 games- and just 12 penalty minutes.
In addition to the 12 individual awards, the three overage players – LeBlanc, Fiore and Carozza- were presented with crystal eagles as they finish their major junior careers in Cape Breton. Each of the three, in addition to the other award winners, addressed the capacity crowd gathered in Membertou.
Following the awards banquet the Screaming Eagles are back on the ice at Centre 200 this weekend, Friday and Saturday, for a pair of games against their division rivals the Moncton Wildcats.
