NWHL Holds Awards Ceremony via Social Media

Brianna Decker (Credit: NWHL)

The National Women’s Hockey League held their first awards ceremony online from the campus of the University of New Hampshire in Durham on Sunday afternoon.

The Boston Pride completed a sweep of the awards in every category. The nominees and winners were chosen through votes from the players, fans and members of the press. The league announced the winners via social media.

The regular season champions were the Pride, as they had the best record throughout the regular season. The leading scorer was Hilary Knight.

The NWHL Foundation Award, given to the player that most actively applied the core values of hockey to her community as well as growing and improving the hockey culture was won by Denna Laing. The nomiees were selected by the NWHL Players Association and voted on by the fans. The other nominees were Tatiana Rafter of the Buffalo Beauts, Anya Battaglino from the Connecticut Whale and the Jenny Scrivens from the New York Riveters.

Gigi Marvin was named the Best Defensemen and Brittany Ott was the Best Goaltender. Both of the awards were voted on by the NWHL Writers’ Group, consisting of about 50 members of media representing outlets such as Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports, Yahoo Sports, Boston Magazine and The New York Times.

The Perseverance Award was awarded the player who represented perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to her sport. The award chosen through a write in vote through the NWHL Writers’ Group was awarded to Laing. Laing suffered a spinal cord injury during the outdoor game played on New Year’s Eve before the National Hockey League held the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day.

The Most Valuable Player Award was chosen through a write in vote by the NWHLPA and went to Brianna Decker. Runners up in the voting for MVP were Knight and from the Beauts, Kelley Steadman and Emily Pfalzer.

Pride first round pick, Kendall Coyne won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award given to the top Division I Women’s Ice Hockey Player each year. First overall draft pick, Alex Carpenter from the Riveters was also a finalist for the award. Carpenter also won it last season.