2008-09 Kimble Award: Most Exciting Fighter

[Merlin401]

Nominees

Eric Boulton - surprisingly great year with a Fight of the Year candidate vs. Orr and great fights with Brashear, Vandermeer, Konopka, Thornton, etc

Riley Cote - last year's winner had another exciting year with few wins but lots of punches. Fight of the year candidate vs. Godard as well as awesome bouts with Shelley, MacIntyre, Boulton, Rechlicz, and Belak.

Eric Godard - Had the epic fight with Cote, the four-fight classic series with Colton Orr and a huge beatdown of Steve MacIntyre.

Colton Orr - The incredible series with Godard, the aforementioned punch-in-the-face classic with Boulton, and great fights with MacIntyre, Koci, Brashear and even old-man-Owen-Nolan.

Jody Shelley - Had an exciting year enforcing for the Sharks, going toe-to-toe with Brashear, Parros, Cote, McGrattan and Ivanans in excellent fights. Bonus points for leaving plenty of blood on the ice (his own and opponents)


My Pick

Again the "Most Exciting Enforcer" tag has to wait another year before we can give it to Rick Rypien (Can the guy ever stay healthy?). Also a shout out to Chris Neil who has been a warrior but a pretty boring fighter of late. This year he turned in a hell of a season fight-wise including many high-quality fights. Another honorable mention to Donald Brashear who had more "great" fights than I think he's had in the last 10 years combined. Great job letting loose and throwing the punches.

As for my vote of an actual contestant, I'm going to go with Colton Orr as his fights were just consistently very good. I also like that he has that immense power (which we only got to really see this year in the Rupp TKO but it still makes the fights more exciting). Really can't go wrong with any choice here.

Previous Winners

2003-04: Darcy Hordichuk
2005-06: Brian McGrattan
2006-07: Derek Boogaard (stole it from Josh Gratton IMO)
2007-08: Riley Cote

[jkidd]

Gotta give this one to Eric Godard.

He hits the hat trick this year, IMO.

[stevecanuck16]

I came in here fully expecting to vote for Rypien. I guess that'll have to wait til next year. None of the guys really jump out at me, so I'll just copy JKidd because he's smart sometimes.

[OneilltheGiant]

Boulton got my vote here...

There's a few middle weight fighters that probable should of been included though...

[Isles4life]

This was a close one with no clear cut winner this year, but I just love watching Godard fight. He had a great season and had some real entertaining bouts, plus was involved in the only NHL fight I got to see live this year against Mitch Fritz. So there goes my vote.

[nyislesfan45]

Godard had a ton of great bouts this year, gotta give it to him.

[Grittzkey]

i went with riley becaue he is open.

[R.Middleton]

I'm picking Cote.

[pesadillamal]

Colton grabs with the left, and throws rights.

[T800m101]

Godard always entertains.

[Blouin]

Colton, always entertaining

[BStreetBullies]

Godard the giant-killer.

Cote shied away from his rookie approach.

HM to Orr.

[Killah_punk]

Gotta go with the Gaint Killer, Eric Godard.

[BrianTheAdsFan]

Originally Posted by stevecanuck16

I came in here fully expecting to vote for Rypien. I guess that'll have to wait til next year. None of the guys really jump out at me, so I'll just copy JKidd because he's smart sometimes.

I'll say the same except Jordin Tootoo stands out for me. Win lose or draw, he's damn fun to watch.

[zoli]

Godard just slightly above Orr. Both of these had ton of wars especially against each other but imo Godard had more important/entertaining fights.

This one goes to Godard imo.