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TAMPA, FL (WFLA) — The NHL’s all-star break offered a break from games across the league as the game’s top players gathered in Toronto for all-star weekend festivities.
The Lighting were represented in Toronto by Nikita Kucherov, who was making his fifth all-star appearance since being drafted in 2011.
While the Lighting only sent one player to the 2024 all-star game, that did not stop the team from releasing their midseason awards.
The awards were a mixture of serious awards, like MVP, and tongue-in-cheek awards, like the “Brothers Gotta Hug” Award.
Below are the awards that were given out:
- MVP Award
- Nikita Kucherov
- “Through Tampa Bay’s first 50 games of the campaign, Kucherov has been involved in nearly half of the plays that end with the puck in the back of the net, factoring into an astonishing 48.9% of the team’s 174 goals.”
- The Biggest Flex Award
- Nikita Kucherov’s stick
- “No stats or analytics to measure the impressiveness of this photograph. But it’s one of the coolest shots of the season so far, a perfectly timed ode to one of the best wingers in the game.”
- The Best Defenseman Award
- Victor Hedman
- “Through only 48 games this season, Hedman has already surpassed his point total from the 2022-23 campaign that saw him finish the year with 49 points on nine goals and 40 assists. At the All-Star break, he’s matched his goal total from last season with nine, while his 41 assists and 50 points have both bested last year’s numbers.”
- The ‘Brother’s Gotta Hug’ award
- Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos
- “The most wholesome bros in hockey put on a tour de force of friendship for Hedman’s 1,000th game, in which Stammer narrated a rousing pregame tribute to the Big Swede. The two have played together in Tampa since before they could legally hit MacDinton’s.”
- The Most Improved Award
- Darren Raddysh
- “Raddysh hasn’t looked like a player with less than 100 games of NHL experience. Skating in all 50 games for the Bolts this season, his four goals are the second-most among all defensemen on the team, while his 18 points are good for third.”
- The Heart and Soul Award
- Luke Glendening
- “Glendening has been dynamite at the dot for Tampa Bay, winning a team-high 56.7% of his faceoffs this year, tied for the seventh-highest win percentage across the entire NHL. But his impact has gone far beyond just faceoffs.”
- The Pardon the Interruption Award
- Andrei Vasilevskiy’s Postgame Presser Air Biscuit
