2008-09 Most Improved/Comeback Fighter

[Merlin401]

Nominees

Wade Belak
Belak has just not been the same since October 27, 2005 when one Colton Orr badly broke his nose in a big win. He was hesitant. He started slowly bouncing back and even defeated Orr in a fight or two the next two years, but slowly started losing playing time in the train-wreck that was the Toronto Maple Leaf organization. But 08-09 brought about a tremendous resurgence in a trade to Nashville (via a short stop in Florida). Belak posted a career year in a three fight series with behemoth Derek Boogaard in which he took the series. He had a good knockdown of Cam Janssen and a solid win over Darcy Hordichuk. But he put his name firmly on the map with a huge knockout victory over Donald Brashear.

Eric Boulton
Somehow Boulton career went on a weird journey to never-never land after the lockout. In 2005-06 and 2006-07 he nearly vanished from the fighting landscape, rarely fighting and not doing anything noteworthy in them. In 06-07 he managed a meager 49 PIMs and five fights in 45 games. He bounced back slightly in 07-08 but was still losing to the likes of... Branislav Mezei. Are you serious? In 08-09 he became a potential top 10 fighter again. He had a fight-of-the-year type fight vs. Colton Orr (and actually won), while adding excellent fights vs. Brashear, Vandermeer, Konopka, Cote, and S. Thornton. It was a good year seeing one of the old guard consistently get himself into the penalty box and onto the "win" column more often than not.

Cam Janssen
Cam Janssen's career looked to be in trouble when a dislocated shoulder forced him to the sidelines in pre-season 2007. When he came back, he had lost his starting position on the Devils and even a trade to his hometown Blues didn't really get his fighting back on track. He looked to be on pace to be on the losing side of a 4th line winger battle with DJ King before a season ending injury gave Janssen another shot. Playing everyday, Janssen put up career high numbers in fights, penalty minutes, and even points (ok, so it was only 4). He had one of the fights of the year with Aaron Downey, a brutal beating of Aaron Voros, and plenty of the trademark 1:30 Janssen fights spread throughout the year (with guys like Barch, Stortini, Prust, Peters, etc). It was nice to see Janssen bounce back from a lost year.

Mike Rupp
In 2007-08 it actually looked like Mike Rupp, a big forward who would fight middeweights occassionally, was actually trying to become a heavyweight fighter. In 2008-09, he became one, even garnering some top 10 consideration. He doubled his previous career high in fights with 16, becoming a legitimate force for the Devils. He even started winnings some fights against top guys, defeated Colton Orr, Eric Boulton, Shawn Thornton and Riley Cote. Its been a very impressive transformation for Rupp over the course of the last 2 years, going from fumbling around with the likes of Greg Campbell and Drew Fata to being one of the league's more consistent heavyweights.

Jason Strudwick
Going from virtually out of a job in 06-07 to getting a back-up shot with the Rangers in 07-08 to landing a spot in his hometown of Edmonton this year. As a Ranger Struds was a solid, great locker-room guy who always struck me as an immensely boring fighter. As an Oiler he actually was one of the more exciting fighters around. He fought eight times and racked up excellent fights with Ben Ondrus, Cody McCormick, Daniel Carcillo and Krys Barch. By my count he didn't lose a fight (all against some decent middleweight competition).


My Pick
It looked like Wade Belak's career would be winding down, but he put a major exclamation point on his career with a major TKO of Donald Brashear which he will be remembered for forever. I think that alone is enough to give him the comeback nod, but he put up a hell of a season around that one fight as well.


Previous Winners

2003-04: Matt Johnson
2005-06: John Erskine
2006-07: George Parros
2007-08: Aaron Downey

[Isles4life]

I'm gonna throw out Tim Jackman's name as a possible additional nomination. The guy went from competing for the dubious distinction of being the league's worst fighter last year and morphed into a respectable middleweight. Not necessarily your conventional pick for the award because he didn't turn into a great fighter, but he was vastly improved, with some good showings against decent competition this season.

[JKidd]

Wade Belak - and then everyone else.

Like mentioned, it looked like the end was near. Going from Toronto to Floria and then to Nashville all within a season and a half - it looked like he was going to become the journey man HW veteran... and then he took out the young gun, Derek Boogaard... and then took out the king in emphatic fashion with the KO win over Donnie Brash.

[skacore]

I think Matt Walker had a great year playing most regular season and all of playoffs, whereas he was always sort of a part-time player on St. Louis. He's really established himself as Chicago's heavyweight enforcer and had a great year.

[stevecanuck16]

Even though Belak had the best season, I feel like Boulton had the best comeback. He took a ton of sh!t on this site last year, and came back with some of the most exciting fights this season.

[Snipes19]

Originally Posted by stevecanuck16

Even though Belak had the best season, I feel like Boulton had the best comeback. He took a ton of sh!t on this site last year, and came back with some of the most exciting fights this season.

Agreed.

Belak definitely had the best year and is becoming one of the league's best fighters, but he's always been a good fighter. Belak has been a top 7 guy in the league for a while now - he was just underrated - so I'm not surprised by his season this year. It's not like he came back from being horrible. Boulton on the other hand was kind of a nobody before this season... he's never gotten a lot of attention and was an average HW. But this year he really surprised me and had a good year, so he improved a lot.

This award goes to Boulton where as a fighter of the year award goes to Belak. That's how I see it.

Zac Stortini ?

[nyislesfan45]

Tim Jackman should've gotten a nomination for this.

[OneilltheGiant]

Belak stepped it up from being one of the better fighters in the league to being the best this year, so gets my vote..

Also think Rupp improved a lot as well...

[Grittzkey]

Went with Rupp first player that came to my mind..

Belak has always been known as a Heavy, he just had a a good run this year.

Ruppp on the other hand went from being an oversized middleweight to throwing down with some tough cookies.

[Isles4life]

So I voted on this based on the Most Improved part of the award title. Mike Rupp did a great job improving his game and came out of nowhere to garner serious consideration by many for a position in the back end of the top 10. At this time last year, most people would have found that ridiculous, but a strong season enabled Rupp to establish himself as a true heavyweight.

Belak had a great comeback once he was saved from the Panthers organization by Nashville, but he had shown in the past that when he had the opportunity to play, he could get the job done.

All that said, Tim Jackman in my opinion still was the most improved fighter this year, even if he was snubbed from the ballot. The guy went from sucking balls to being a decent middleweight. If you could really quantify fighting ability, I think he had the biggest increase of anyone.

[R.Middleton]

Man, this is the toughest award in the whole thing.

Mike Rupp finally made it into my Top Ten and is now my vote for most improved.

[nyislesfan45]

Originally Posted by Isles4life

So I voted on this based on the Most Improved part of the award title. Mike Rupp did a great job improving his game and came out of nowhere to garner serious consideration by many for a position in the back end of the top 10. At this time last year, most people would have found that ridiculous, but a strong season enabled Rupp to establish himself as a true heavyweight.

Belak had a great comeback once he was saved from the Panthers organization by Nashville, but he had shown in the past that when he had the opportunity to play, he could get the job done.

All that said, Tim Jackman in my opinion still was the most improved fighter this year, even if he was snubbed from the ballot. The guy went from sucking balls to being a decent middleweight. If you could really quantify fighting ability, I think he had the biggest increase of anyone.

Without a doubt, you are correct. He got beat up by.....everyone before this season and he turned himself into a solid middle.


Merlin, you do a great job with these but is there any reason why Jackman isn't up there?

[Blouin]

Belak had a great year fighting and takes this award without a doubt

[NJDevils17]

Belak was definitely the best comeback fighter. The Brashear fight says it all (sorry RC).

I thought Mike Rupp was most improved though. He really seemed to turn into an enforcer type player this year.