Isles Hand Out End-of-Year Awards
2024-06-28
While half the teams in the Elite Hockey Experience began preparing themselves for the playoffs this past week, the New York Islanders took care of some business of their own, announcing their team awards for the 2023-24 season.
The awards gala was held at a local Denny’s, with Isles General Manager Kyle Phillips personally handing out a shiny participation ribbon to every player.
Although no media members were allowed inside, Phillips did make a brief statement afterwards, saying he "just hope(s) all the players had fun this year" and presenting a press release listing this year’s winners.
Most Improved Player: Rem Pitlick
The 27-year-old Pitlick saw an impressive jump in production for the Islanders this year, going from 0 points in 15 games during the 2022-23 campaign (a 0.0 points per game average) to 3 assists in 37 games in 2023-24 (0.08 P/GP). As a pending RFA, Rem will no doubt receive a healthy contract offer from the Islanders, who believe he can average at least 5 points per season through the prime of his career.
Most Sportsmanlike Player: Tomas Tatar
With only 4 PIMs in 21 game as a member of the Islanders, Tomas showed what a gentleman he is on the ice. Off the ice, he was a great sport about being traded out of town a month after being acquired from Boston.
Most Exciting Player: Joel Eriksson Ek
With JEE posting a stat line of 29 G, 42 A, 71 Pts with a +29 rating in 2022-23, watching him slide to 13 G, 18 A, 31 Pts with a -17 this past season was a hell of a toboggan ride for Islanders fans!
Best Defenceman: Alec Regula
Most people expected Alec to spend the year in the minors, but he stuck it to his doubters by getting promoted to the big club, posting a stat line of 1GP, 0G, 0A and averaging 10:35 of ice time. The entire Islanders organization congratulates Alex on so thoroughly exceeding expectations!
Best Forward: Nathan MacKinnon
Big Nate proved once again to be the model of consistency, posting the fifth 70-point campaign of his illustrious career. If not for 12 games missed to injury, he might even have managed to exceed 80 points for the third time in 10 seasons. Here on Long Island, we call that a franchise player!
Most Valuable Player:
With their business for 2023-24 thus officially concluded, Islanders players and coaches will go their separate ways for the summer, many of them likely to be employed by new teams at the outset of 2024-25.
The Isles' management team, meanwhile, will no doubt turn their attention to the 2024 EHE Entry Draft, where the club will be picking 32nd, 95th, and 96th overall.
LOL
Isles Hand Out End-of-Year Awards
Catch the Excitement!
This screams the Dundies, haha!
Isles Hand Out End-of-Year Awards
Catch the Excitement!
The thought of you sitting in a booth yelling out, "what's next?" while the players sit at a table together hammering a team special "Moons Over My Hammy" made me laugh.
Isles Hand Out End-of-Year Awards
Catch the Excitement!