Jansen Harkins earned a share of 2012 Hockey Now minor player of the year title in British Columbia.
The Prince George Cougars first-round Western Hockey League bantam draft pick (second overall) a month ago was a co-winner of the award along with Mathew Barzal, the top pick of the 2012 draft by the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Harkins, son of Todd Harkins who played in the NHL with the Hartford Whalers and Calgary Flames, had 83 goals and 153 points in 74 games with the North Shore Winter Club bantam triple-A team. The 15 year old served as captain of the NSWC team that reached the final of three elite-level bantam tournaments, winning in Chilliwack and placing second in Kamloops and St. Albert's John Reid Memorial event in January.
Barzal, born three days after Harkins in May 1997, served as captain for the Burnaby Winter Club triple-A bantam team, guiding the squad a repeat win at the Western Canadian Bantam Championship . He had 55 goals and 153 points in 51 games with Burnaby.
The award for player of the year was first given out in 2000 when Colin Fraser, a member of the Los Angeles Kings, won it.
The duo win by Barzal and Harkins marks the third time in its history the Hockey Now award is shared. In 2002, Brock Bradford, a member for the 2009-10 Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL, and current Phoenix Coyote Gilbert Brule shared the award, while defencemen Griffin Reinhart of the Edmonton Oil Kings and Morgan Rielly of the Moose Jaw Warriors picked up the award in 2009.
Both Reinhart and Rielly are touted as Top 10 picks at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft in Pittsburgh, June 21 and 22.
Barzal and Harkins will receive their award at the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame induction celebration at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton, July 27. The 2012 induction class includes: Scott Niedermayer, Rod Brind'Amour, Scott Carter, Bob Hindmarch and Jim Hughson.
