Brendan Guhle played just 32 games this season for the Prince George Cougars – less than half the season – but in that time on the ice he showed why he's been indispensable.
The 19-year-old defenceman won the Dan Hamhuis Award as the team MVP at Sunday's Cougars awards brunch at the Civic Centre. Guhle provides the Cats with a weapon they lacked until he joined them Nov. 21 after being traded from the Prince Albert Raiders.
His impact was immediate. In his first game with the Cats against the Regina Pats, he opened the scoring with his first shot on goal to help the Cougars hand the Pats their second regulation loss of the season. That led to a three-game stint in the NHL in December with the Buffalo Sabres, who drafted Guhle in the second round in 2015, and Guhle made the most of his opportunity, looking like he belonged playing with the pros.
The Cougars were glad to get him back and despite missing 12 games with an ankle injury that kept him out of the lineup for all of February, the smooth-skating Edmonton native has picked up right where he left off. He scored the tying goal for the Cougars Saturday as they ended the regular season with a 2-1 shootout loss at CN Centre to the Kamloops Blazers.
In his 32 games in a Cougars jersey, Guhle collected 13 goals and 16 assists for 29 points, to go with the two goals and two assists he had in 15 games with the Raiders.
"He's an impact player when he steps out onto the ice and you could see with our struggles throughout February when he wasn't in the lineup how much we missed him," said Cougars general manager Todd Harkins. "You could see in the timely goals that he scored and the timely plays he was able to create to allow us to win the B.C. Division that he was our most valuable player."
Ryan Schottler won two awards Sunday – the Brett Connolly Award as the top rookie and the Dr. Jeff Zorn Award as scholastic player of the year. The 17-year-old defenceman from Lloydminster, Alta., made the difficult transition from midget to major junior, stepping into a regular role with the Cougars on the blueline. In 58 games he had a goal and nine assists and finished with a plus-10 rating. He scored his first career WHL goal in his first game, in Victoria Sept. 24.
"He's a great skater who thinks the game very well and he has a big heart and he competes," said Harkins. "He's a very quiet kid off the ice but he goes to school and gets his school work done and he had an impact right away as a 17-year-old player.
"He helped us right off the bat the first weekend in Victoria when guys were away in NHL camps and we knew right then we had a gem of a player."
Ty Edmonds raised the standards for Prince George Cougars goalies, establishing career records for wins (100), games played (214) and saves (5,732) while leading the Cougars to first place in the division. This season he won 31 of the 53 games he played, finishing with a 2.48 goals-against average and .916 save percentage. Edmonds won two team awards – the Chris Mason Award (most game star selections) and the Michael Fogolin Memorial Award (players choice award).
The 20-year-old University of Lethbridge recruit was also selected for the Cougars Fan Club bursary award.
"He's a competitor who loves playing the game and loves stopping pucks and he's a great teammate as the players' choice as their MVP," said Harkins. "He's valuable not only in our net but in our dressing room."
Other award winners were: Jansen Harkins, Troy Bourke Award (top offensive player); Sam Ruopp, Eric Brewer Award (top defensive player); and Jesse Gabrielle, Dorothy Johnson Memorial Award (most popular player, as voted by Cougars fans).
Harkins, 19, led the Cougars in scoring with 72 points in 62 games, including 21 goals, and established new career records for most points (242) and assists (167). Ruopp, 20, a stay-at-home defenceman, is the only three-year captain in the team's 23-year history in Prince George. Gabrielle, 19, followed up a 40-goal season last year with a team-high 35 this season and had 64 points in 61 games.
