HOWIE MORENZ CUP (League Champion)

    A year after losing in the finals, the Los Angeles Kings took the next step capturing the MHL championship, outduelling the Dallas Stars in a tight six-game series. Patrick Stefan, in only his second playoff game, scored the winner, shorthanded at 7:31 of overtime, to give the Kings a 3-2 win in game six. It was Los Angeles' third overtime win in the series and their fourth one-goal victory.
    The Morenz Cup win capped off a season which had not been an easy one for the victors.  Constant roster shuffling - they used 43 players - made it difficult for the Kings to establish any sort of chemistry early on.  The Kings got out of the gate slowly spending much of the first-half of the season bouncing between fourth-place and fifth-place, a couple of games below the .500 mark. However, as the defensive corps began to solidify, key additions included Jeff Norton, Jason Smith and Steve Smith, helped the Kings find their step in the second half and emerge from the pack.  They finished the season 13-6-1 in their last 20 games, eventually finish the season in second-place, but still 27-points behind first-place Florida Panthers.
    The opening round of the playoffs offered a measure of revenge for the Kings.  A year earlier, the Capitals defeated the Kings in the finals in five games.  This year the surging Kings returned the favour handily dispatching the Caps in five. Los Angeles expected to meet the Panthers in the finals, but for the second straight year the first-place club was knocked out of playoffs in the first-round.  This year the Dallas Stars did the deed  subdueing the Panthers in a thrilling 7-game series.  The Stars jumped out to a 3-1 series lead only to have the Panthers fight back and tie it up.  But, the Stars didn't fold, Chris Simon scored midway through the third period in game 7 to give the underdogs a 3-2 win over Florida and a berth in the final.

YEAR	WINNER	SERIES	RUNNER-UP
2000/01	Atlanta	4-3	Los Angeles
1999/00	Los Angeles	4-2	Dallas
1998/99	Washington	4-1	Los Angeles

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TED LINDSAY TROPHY (Regular Season Champion)

    From the start of the regular season the Panthers left little doubt who would be the class of the MHL.  The Cats opened the 99-00 campaign to pro-hockey record 17-straight wins on their way to establishing pro-hockey records for points in a season (111), finishing an astounding 27 points better than second-place Los Angeles. However, the Morenz Cup expectations of both the Panthers and their fans came up considerably short when the club was unable to turn regular season glory into post-season gold, losing to the fourth-place Dallas Stars in a thrilling seven-game semi-final series.
 

YEAR	WINNER	RECORD	RUNNER-UP
2000/01	Los Angeles	45-24-11	Atlanta
1999/00	Florida	51-20-9	Los Angeles
1998/99	Detroit	43-29-8	Los Angeles

There was no player more consistent this year in the MHL than Florida Panther centre Cory Stillman.  In his second season, first full MHL season, Stillman ran away with the scoring race, finishing the season with 70 points, eight points better than teammate Wendel Clark.
    Stillman's 70 point season established a new MHL record for points in a single season, bettering the record of last year's Lafluer Award winner Travis Green by one point. Consistency was the hallmark of Stillman's season. The diminutive and gritty centre never went more than three consecutive games without a registering a point. Stillman finished in the top-10 in several offensive categories including: 1st in points (70), 1st in points/minute played (0.50), 1st in assists (41), 5th in game winning goals (5), 6th in goals (29), 7th in power play goals (9) and 9th plus/minus (+22).

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
1999/00	Cory Stillman	Florida	Stephane Quintal (Fla)
1998/99	Travis Green	Washington	Yanic Perreault (Det)

    As thoroughly as Cory Stillman dominated the offensive side of the MHL, his teammate blueliner Stephane Quintal dominated the defensive side of the game.  Despite only being a rookie, Quintal put together the most complete and dominate defensive season in the brief history of the MHL.
    Not only did Quintal excel at the offensive side of the game. Besides leading all defenseman in scoring with 49 points, good for eighth in the league, and tying league MVP Cory Stillman for the league lead in assists with 41, he was by far the best on the defensive side of things. Quintal was a demon in his own end winning 52% of corner battles while dishing 189 hits.  His 2.36 hits per game mark was good for third in the league and, of course, 1st among MHL blueliners.

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
1998/99	Phil Housley	Detroit	Marcus Ragnarsson (Dal)
1999/00	Stephane Quintal	Florida	Jason Wooley (Dal)

    It was indeed a special season for Cory Stillman, who became the first player in MHL history to record a 70-point season. The second year-pro finished with 70 -points on the nose, eight better than teammate Wendel Clark, to comfortably claim his first Phil Esposito Trophy. Stillman was one of only two players this season to finish among the top-10 in all three triple crown categories, points (1st with 70), assists (T1st with 41) and goals (T6th with 29).  The only other player to accomplish the feat was Dallas Stars' right winger Joe Murphy, who finished 3rd in points (59), T7th in assists (27), and 2nd in goals with (32).

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
2000/01	Mark Parrish	Washington	Trevor Linden (Dal)
1999/00	Cory Stillman	Florida	Wendel Clark (Fla)
1998/99	Travis Green	Washington	Miroslav Satan (Det)

    If there was one theme to this year's MHL awards it was how the major award winners completely dominated their specific category.  It was certainly true with rCory Stillman in the Lafluer Trophy balloting and Stephane Quintal in the Bourque Trophy balloting.  And that theme was held to form with regards to the Ken Dryden balloting as voters were unanimous in honoring Los Angeles Kings goaltender Sean Burke.
Burke, a third-year pro and second in the MHL, put together a dream season capturing the goaltender triple crown.  He led the league in goals against average becoming the first pro goalie to record a sub 2.00 average (1.97), was first in save percentage (.931) and led the league in shutouts (7).  All three marks are MHL single season records. His shutout total equaled Patrick Roy's NNHL records.

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
1998/99	Jocelyn Thibault	Washington	Craig Billington (LA)
1999/00	Sean Burke	Los Angeles	Jamie Storr (Dal)

    This was perhaps the tightest category to judge with a pair of canidates from the Florida Panthers leading an impressive pack of MHL freshman.  In the end, it came down to Wendel Clark's new league record of 44 goals in a season versus teammate Stephane Quintal's outstanding season on the blueline.  It was Quintal that got the nod for the Denis Potvin Trophy as the league's top rookie.
    The difference was the belief that it is a much tougher task for a defenceman to dominate his position in his first pro season than a forward.  And given the success of a number of rookie forwards this season (five of the top six scorers in the MHL were rookies), Quintal, in the end, was an obvious choice.
From early on, the rookie rearguard established himself as the go-to guy on the Panther blueline leading them, as well as, the rest of the league in a number of defensive categories.  Included among them were points (49) 7th overall), assists (41) first overall in MHL and hits/game (2.36) good for 3rd. Throw in a team leading 158 penalty minutes, 189 hits, 52% success rate in the corners while averaging 24.5 minutes of ice per game, it's easy to see how Quintal established himself as one of the Panther's team leaders.

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
1998/99	Travis Green	Washington	Yanic Perreault (Det)
1999/00	Stephane Quintal	Florida	Wendel Clark (Fla)

    History dictates that each post season a hero emerges.  It's usually a player who has had a mediocre season, but come playoff time takes their game to the next step and leads his club to victory.  Well, that's certainly the case this year.  After a mediocre season, Pat Falloon took his game up a notch to lead the Los Angeles Kings to their first MHL championship.
    Falloon led the Kings in post season scoring with 11 points, 7 goals and 4 assists, in 11 games including  five goals in the Morenz Cup Final, a six-game series win over Dallas, to win the Mark Messier Trophy. The second-year pro had an average season for the Kings scoring 17 goals and only 26 points this season seeing limited duty in 71 games this season, but was an offensive force in the playoffs.  In the semi-finals he counted five points, two goals including the game winner in a 5-1 Game 3 win, in the five-game series win over Washington.
    In the finals, Falloon increased his goal scoring pace scoring goals in the last three games of the finals, all Kings wins. Included among those goals was the game winner in a tough 4-3 game 5 win.

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
1998/99	Gerald Diduck	Washington	Ron Tugnutt (Wash)
1999/00	Pat Falloon	Los Angeles	Joe Murphy (Dal)

    From the get-go it was not a question of whether Wendel Clark would break Mike Sillinger's year-old record for most goals in a single season, but by how much Clark would break it.  Well, Clark shattered the record by six goals, finishing the season with 44 and the Mike Bossy Trophy.
    Clark, in his rookie season, easily out distanced his nearest rival, Stars winger Joe Murphy by 12 goals to become the first player in MHL history to break the 40-goal barrier. Among Clark's season highlights was leading the league in hits (224), even-strength goals (31) and game winning goals (8).
 

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
2000/01	Mark Parrish	Washington	Trevor Linden (Dal)
1999/00	Wendel Clark	Florida	Joe Murphy (Dal)
1998/99	Mike Sillinger	Detroit	Miroslav Satan (Det)

    This season no player blended skill and gentlemanly play better than Dallas Stars defenceman Jason Woolley. Woolley, in his second pro-season, was an anchor on the Stars' blueline playing and excelling in all situations, whether it was quarterbacking the powerplay, killing penalties or taking a regular shift, while only amassing 38 penalty minutes in 77-games.
Woolley, finished the season second among MHL defenceman in scoring with 47 points, 10 goals and 37 assists.  He led his club in plus/minus (+17) while averaging 23 minutes of ice per game and completing 84% of his passes.

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
1998/99	Craig Janney	Los Angeles	Alexandre Daigle (Det)
1999/00	Jason Wooley	Florida	Zdeno Ciger (Fla)

    In his rookie season, Washington left winger Scott Pellerin established himself as not only the premier defensive forward in the MHL, but also perhaps as one of the most well-rounded forwards in the league.
He was easily the most dominant penalty killer in the league scoring a league high five shorthanded goals.  He also proved to be a tenacious forechecker winning 57.7% of his corner battles while dishing out 159 hits.
    Nevertheless, despite spending most of his time shadowing the opposition's best forwards, Pellerin developed into a key offensive force for the Capitals.  His 25 goals were good for fourth on the Caps, while his five game winning goals was a team-high, tying him with Mark Parrish and Jan Bulis.  Also he was tops among Capital forwards in ice time averaging almost 18 minutes/game.

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
1998/99	Mike Sillinger	Detroit	Claude Lapointe (LA)
1999/00	Scott Pellerin	Washington	Ted Donato (Mtl)

    Burke dominated all the key goaltender statistics this season in the MHL, but none was more impressive than his league leading 1.97 goals-against average.  It wasn't so much that it was 0.22 better than runner-up Jamie Storr of the Dallas Stars, who came in with a 2.19 average. It was the fact that no one had ever before finished a full pro hockey season with an average below 2.00, while playing in 39 games.
 

YEAR	WINNER	TEAM	RUNNER-UP
2000/01	Jean-Sebastien Giguere	Seattle	Brent Johnson (LA)
1999/00	Sean Burke	Los Angeles	Jamie Storr (Dal)
1998/99	Sean Burke	Detroit	Craig Billington (LA)