2006-07 Crowder Award: Rookie of the Year

[Merlin401]

There were a lot of great rookies in 06-07, and while last year brought in a crop of great heavyweights (Orr, McGrattan, Boogaard, Janssen, Parros), this year brought in solid middleweight and light heavyweights. There were many more that didn't make our final cut but we'd like to salute them anyway (Nick Tarnasky, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, Brad Winchester, Zach Stortini, etc).

Also, our apologies to Josh Gratton, who we probably prematurely nominated for Rookie of the Year last year making him inelligible for the 06-07 honor. For that reason, we'll leave off guys that only had a few weeks to make an impact this year off the list (Koci, Carcillo, etc).

Nominees:

Krys Barch
Arrived in Dallas in late January to fill in for the injured Barnaby and Ott. He entered the NHL with a bang, having 6 fights in 4 games during a week starting January 28. Barch proved to be a popular pseudo-enforcer amassing 13 fights including opponents ranging from all-stars in Chris Pronger to heavyweights in DJ King.

Ben Eager
After being a non-issue in call-ups last year, he made a splash with the Flyers in 06-07 fighting 16 times and earning enough misconducts to give him the penalty minute crown for the year (and the only man above 200 pims). From his TKO of Doug Janik to hanging with heavyweight Colton Orr, Eager's energy was a welcome breath of fresh air during a dismal season in Philadelphia.

Raitis Ivanans
Ivanans' posted 14 fights as the new LA heavyweight and held his own against the toughest the league has to offer. He also gained more and more responsability as the year went along, and his versatility of being able to play defense or up front made him valuable enough for LA to lock him up for 07-08 before the season even ended.

D.J. King
Up and down throughout the season, King's 8 impressive NHL fights earn him a nomination. His 6-1-1 record included many great fights, impressive victories over Parker, Shawn Thornton, Parros, and Shelley. Hopefully he will find a full-time home in St. Louis next year.

Shane O'Brien
Another 14 fight rookie who played valuable minutes on the blue-line for Anaheim and Tampa Bay as well. His rugged play, willingess to defend his teammates, hard shot, and smart play made him worth a 1st round pick in Tampa Bay's eyes at the trade deadline.

Jeremy Reich
A mid-season call up who finally gave Boston a big of a rugged presence on the 4th line. He posted 9 fights as a game middleweight and even stepped up in class and did well with Eric Boulton in his final fight.

My Pick:

I'll give it to the best player on the list, O'Brien, whose contributions go far past dropping the gloves. He also gets bonus points with me for single-handidly leading me to the Penalty minute fantasy crown with his nearly 200 pims. Thanks

Previous Winners:

03-04: Andrew Peters
05-06: Brian McGrattan

[cottonzway]

I guess I have to make the "homer" Ben Eager pick? He was one of the few players in Philly who made the season bearable for Flyers fans. I really am looking forward to him playing on the same team as Steve Downie.

[jayc948]

Originally Posted by cottonzway

I guess I have to make the "homer" Ben Eager pick? He was one of the few players in Philly who made the season bearable for Flyers fans. I really am looking forward to him playing on the same team as Steve Downie.

Stop being a homer...

On a serious note, I forgot about Eager being a nominee.

[Mr. Pink]

DJ King was awesome this year with a big win over Barch to seal the deal.

[Isles4life]

King may have had the best year as a fighter in my opinion, but Barch gets my vote for how he came into the league. He clearly wanted to cement a spot on the roster and fought anyone and everyone in the beginning, and didn't do terrible in most of his scraps.

[jkidd]

What a crop of young guys...

I'm really torn between a Krys Barch, Ben Eager and D.J. King. Barch, just because he came up and wanted to throw down with anything that moved. Eager, came up and made watching Flyer games tolerable, all the while having a great year with the fists and with the hits. DJ was just great, pretty much all year.

In the end....

I'll give it to Ben Eager. He dropped the gloves a lot, had some great fights, and had some nice wins.

[Rellstone90]

D.J. King

[nyrgoal]

king handsdown, he will be the heavyweight champ soon and he is a rookie and he is in my top 5

[stevecanuck16]

DJ King is head and shoulders above all but Ivanans in terms of fighting skill. King hands down.

[Snipes19]

It's easily D.J. King. He's the rookie of the year after a great year of fighting as a 22-year old rookie. He is a lot better than everyone on that list.

He had a great fight card, as he only had one loss the whole year. He had very good wins over Shelley, Parros, Thornton, Barch, Parker, Hordichuk, and Low. He also had a draw against Boogaard in the preseason, and his only loss came against Boogy as they went at it for round two. That's pretty darn impressive if you ask me.

King has amazing fighting skills for a rookie. He is exciting to watch, and he has an awesome fighting style. And don't worry people, it's already been gauranteed that he WILL be on the Blues 4th-line for the whole season next year, so he has a permanent home in St. Louis. Awesome news. D.J. did great, and I'm looking forward to another exciting year of fighting from him. I also see him as the champ someday. He's the rookie of the year hands down.

[refightfan]

Ivananas got my Vote. King was the better fighter but Ivananas was around all year sticking around the top ten of all heavies. If King was around all year he probably would've got my vote but since he only played a quarter of the year and had 8 fights winning 7 impressively though I see it like this. If a rookie played the whole season and scored 35 Goals and 40 Assist. If an other Rookie came in and played 30 games scored 20 goals and 30 assist. Still the rookie who was around all year and recorded the more points will win the rookie of the year. So Ivananas second by King.

[FlyersEnforcer]

i went with Raitis Ivanans

[Rugged]

Originally Posted by refightfan

Ivananas got my Vote. King was the better fighter but Ivananas was around all year sticking around the top ten of all heavies. If King was around all year he probably would've got my vote but since he only played a quarter of the year and had 8 fights winning 7 impressively though I see it like this. If a rookie played the whole season and scored 35 Goals and 40 Assist. If an other Rookie came in and played 30 games scored 20 goals and 30 assist. Still the rookie who was around all year and recorded the more points will win the rookie of the year. So Ivananas second by King.

I agree. I voted for Ivanans for the same reasons.

[IhateLindros]

I voted Barch just because of his activity when we first came up. The guy was exciting and he took over the role very well with Barnaby nad Ott on hte shelf. All of hte nominees here were excellent and this was not an easy choice.

[BGDDYKWL]

I think Eager may have made the biggest impact of the guys on that list. In terms of guys who could contend for the crown down the road, King and Ivanans are the only two, and likely only King. King only played a third of the year though, and Ivanans didn't really have any memorable victories. I think I gotta go with Eager here.