Centorame and McNiven nominated for league awards
Toronto, ON – The Ontario Hockey League today announced the finalists for seven of the league’s major awards for the 2015-16 regular season and two members of the Owen Sound Attack were included in the nominees.
Captain Santino Centore, a 4th year defenceman, was named as Owen Sound’s nominee for the Red Tilson Award as the Most Outstanding Player for 2015-16. Centorame scored 14 goals and added 27 assists in his first year as captain, which was good enough to finish 15th in scoring by blueliners. The 41 points marked a career high for the Mississauga native and now gives him 89 points in 197 carer games played.
Also representing the Attack in the nominations is goaltender Michael McNiven, up for the league’s Goaltender of the Year award. McNiven appeared in 53 games for the Attack and turned in a record of 21-18-7-3 with a 2.94 goals against average and a .902 save percentage. 2015-16 was McNiven’s first as a starter in the OHL and came after he signed an Entry Level Contract with the Montreal Canadiens in the summer of 2015.
Six of the seven awards are voted on by OHL Member Teams including Rookie of the Year, Overage Player of the Year, Most Sportsmanlike Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Goaltender of the Year, and Defenceman of the Year. Teams were asked to submit one nominee from their club for consideration on the ballot and were not permitted to vote for the player from their own hockey club. The first stage of voting was by conference only with the top three players from each conference making the final ballot which is voted on by all 20 OHL General Managers.
All finalists for the Red Tilson Trophy were also nominated by the Member Teams of the Ontario Hockey League as their Most Outstanding Player for the 2015-16 regular season. The Red Tilson Trophy is voted on by the sports writers and broadcasters in the OHL.
2015-16 OHL Awards Finalists:
Rookie of the Year / Emms Family Award Finalists:
Cam Dineen (North Bay Battalion)
Michael DiPietro (Windsor Spitfires)
Max Jones (London Knights)
Boris Katchouk (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds)
Alex Nylander (Mississauga Steelheads)
Matthew Strome (Hamilton Bulldogs)
Overage Player of the Year / Leo Lalonde Memorial Trophy Finalists:
Aaron Berisha (London Knights)
Jack Flinn (Mississauga Steelheads)
Hunter Garlent (Peterborough Petes)
Gabe Guertler (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds)
Kevin Labanc (Barrie Colts)
Devin Williams (Erie Otters)
Most Sportsmanlike Player of the Year / William Hanley Trophy Finalists:
Mike Amadio (North Bay Battalion)
Eric Cornel (Peterborough Petes)
Christian Dvorak (London Knights)
Taylor Raddysh (Erie Otters)
Blake Speers (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds)
Spencer Watson (Kingston Frontenacs)
Coach of the Year / Matt Leyden Trophy Finalists:
Stan Butler (North Nay Battalion)
Dale Hawerchuk (Barrie Colts)
Kris Knoblauch (Erie Otters)
Paul McFarland (Kingston Frontenacs)
Rocky Thompson (Windsor Spitfires)
Mike Van Ryn (Kitchener Rangers)
Goaltender of the Year Award Finalists:
Mackenzie Blackwood (Barrie Colts)
Michael McNiven (Owen Sound Attack)
Alex Nedeljkovic (Niagara IceDogs)
Tyler Parsons (London Knights)
Jake Smith (North Bay Battalion)
Devin Williams (Erie Otters)
Defenceman of the Year / Max Kaminsky Trophy Finalists:
Jakob Chychrun (Sarnia Sting)
Travis Dermott (Erie Otters)
Cam Dineen (North Bay Battalion)
Roland McKeown (Kingston Frontenacs)
Mikhail Sergachev (Windsor Spitfires)
Mitchell Vande Sompel (Oshawa Generals)
Most Outstanding Player of the Year / Red Tilson Trophy Finalists:
Barrie – Kevin Labanc
Erie – Devin Williams
Flint – Will Bitten
Guelph – James McEwan
Hamilton – Niki Petti
Kingston – Roland McKeown
Kitchener – Ryan MacInnis
London – Mitch Marner
Mississauga – Alex Nylander
Niagara – Jordan Maletta
North Bay – Mike Amadio
Oshawa – Anthony Cirelli
Ottawa – Leo Lazarev
Owen Sound – Santino Centorame
Peterborough – Hunter Garlent
Saginaw – Mitchell Stephens
Sarnia – Pavel Zacha
Sault Ste. Marie – Zach Senyshyn
Sudbury – Dmitry Sokolov
Windsor – Christian Fischer
The 2016 OHL Awards Ceremony takes place on Tuesday June 7 at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, however award recipients will be announced periodically throughout the remainder of the 2016 OHL Playoffs. Additional player awards to be announced include Humanitarian of the Year, Academic Players of the Year, and the 2015-16 Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy recipient.
