This award was previously known as the Silver Spoon award.
The winner is the rookie who had the highest PR-Score. As NaturalStatTrick.com did not identify rookies, I had to search the internet far and wide to find a list of this year’s rookies. The site I used was PuckReporter.com. I cannot vouch for the completeness of its list, but the three players I was expecting to see were there.
The winner is Lane Hutson (MTL, D), who had a PR-Score of 7.86.
The Full Contact Award
This award was previously called the Rock ’em Sock ’em Award. It goes to the player who had the highest total number of hits given and received. Previously, this award was determined by total hits per 60 minutes of ice time, which required a time criterion to ensure a one-game hitting wonder would not win. By switching from using a rate to using a count, it was no longer necessary to have a time criterion.
The winner is Kiefer Sherwood (VAN, F), who earned the title principally by delivering 460 hits, almost six hits per game played.
Most Gentlemanly Player
This award was previously called the Faberge Egg. Fans of hitting in hockey have a derisive image of a player that doesn’t hit, saying he could have six eggs in his uniform and play a game without breaking any of them. STTB chooses not to look down on these players: there is a skill to playing against players like Kiefer Sherwood without getting hit.
This award goes to the player who had the least number of hits given and received per 60 minutes of ice time (TH60), provided they played at least 1,230 minutes of total ice time in all manpower situations. When looking for lower values in statistics, it is almost always necessary to use a rate statistic and thus also necessary to use a time-played criterion.
The winner is Patrick Kane (DET, F) who was involved in 1.71 hits per 60 minutes of ice time (19 given, 18 taken).
Second is Brent Burns (CAR, D, 2.03, 11 given, 47 taken). I am stunned that a defenseman came in second in this category. I am doubly stunned that a defenseman can play over 1,700 minutes and deliver only 11 hits.
Sixth Man
“Sixth Man” is a basketball concept that works for hockey as well. The winner is the best player in the league who was the sixth-best player on his team. Players who were traded during the season were excluded from consideration.
The winner is Anthony Cirelli (T.B, F), who had a PR-Score of 8.2080.
Most Defensive Forward
This award goes to the forward with the highest score from the six categories used to determine the Least Defensive Forward award.
The winner is Nic Dowd (WSH, F), with 1.9966 PR-Pts from the defensive categories.
It is interesting that Washington had two of the three most defensive forwards and two of the three least defensive forwards. Washington has their player roles defined.
Most Offensive Defenseman
The Most Offensive Defenseman is given to the defenseman who was on the ice for the most total shot attempts by both teams at 5v5 play, a defenseman who would be at home on the 1982 Edmonton Oilers.
As “total shot attempts (Corsi) for both teams per 60 minutes of five-on-five play (CFA60)” is a rate statistic (“per 60 minutes” makes it a rate statistic), players must have been on the ice for at least 820 minutes of five-on-five play to qualify. 176 defensemen qualified.
The winner is Dougie Hamilton (N.J, D) who sees 129.78 shot attempts per 60 minutes (TotC60) at 5v5 play.
For context, the average TotC60 for all 176 qualifying defensemen was 117.04, and the least offensive defenseman was Tyler Kleven (OTT, D, 105.61). The total difference in TotC60 across all qualifying defensemen was 24.17, which is about eight shot attempts per period.
Most Improved Player
The Most Improved Player is the player whose 2024-25 PR-Score increased the most over his 2023-24 PR-Score, provided he played at least 72 games in 2023-24. It is meant to go to a player who greatly improved his play, rather than a player who had a good season after not having played much the season before.
The winner is Ryan Donato (CHI, F).
On the other side of this list are Zach Hyman (EDM, F) and J.T. Miller (NYR, VAN, F). Both players saw a drop in PR-Score of more than 3.00 PR-Points.
Comeback Player of the Year (new award)
Affectionately known at “The Trampoline”, this award goes to the player with the biggest difference between his PR-Scores in 2022-23 and 2024-25 with his PR-Score of 2023-24. If the PR-Scores of the three seasons were to be on a graph, the line’s shape would be a “V”.
There was no minimum games played criterion for 2023-24. The idea of “comeback” is that the player has overcome an adversity, and it is quite likely that the adversity caused him to miss a large number of games in the 2023-24 season.
The winner is Mikhail Sergachev (UTA, D).
Had either Spurgeon or Hamilton returned to their 2022-23 level of play, they would have won this award.
Most Consistent Player (new award)
The Most Consistent Player award goes to the player with the smallest difference between his lowest PR-Score and his highest PR-Score in the last three seasons, provided his PR-Scores were all above 4.00: he had to be at least PR-Regular in each season.
The winner is Jordan Kyrou (STL, F).
Most Offensive Forward Award
Previously called the Lone Ranger Award. It is given to the player who has the lowest PR-Points from the DZS (defensive zone start) component, which is a technical way of saying it is given to the player who least frequently experienced defensive zone faceoffs. The top players in this category were significantly on the ice for offensive and neutral zone faceoffs.
The winner is Dylan Strome (WSH, F).
Had Ovechkin played 80-ish games instead of 65, he would have won this award in a walk.
Specialist Award (new award)
The Specialist Award goes to the player who spent the most total time on ice on the power play and the penalty-kill.
The winner is Mikhail Sergachev (UTA, D), who had almost 13 full periods on the powerplay as well as 11½ periods on the penalty-kill.
Stapled to the Bench Award
This award is also known as the Red Swingline in honour of Milton Waddams, a character from the movie Office Space: he liked his stapler, a red Swingline.
The award goes to the player who spent the most time stapled to the bench, as determined by games played times 60 minutes minus his time on ice. While the “stapled to the bench minutes” figure includes time spent in the penalty box, it does not include time spent in the press box.
The winner is Ryan Lomberg (CGY, F), who was stapled to the bench for 4,107.6 minutes.
Summary
STTB removes the frustration that many fans feel when seeing a player win an award because he had better publicity than more skill, replacing it with the frustrations that come from ignoring the static of publicity.
The Team-Relative Corsi (TRC) award was retired this year, as research I did during the course of the season revealed that it didn’t measure what I thought it measured. I thought TRC measured a player’s defensive contribution, but TRC is heavily influenced by the frequency with which a player takes part in offensive zone faceoffs.
Reference Articles
2024-25 Top Ten Players