With the wrap of the 2022-2023 regular season, the North Peace Hockey League (NPHL) has handed out their top recognitions.
Grande Prairie Athletics forward Darby Berg was named NPHL Rookie-of-the-Year. Berg was the lead scorer on the Athletics this season. The 23 year old was a contender for the leagues top scorer, but ended up four points short coming in second behind Dawson Creek Canucks Wes Shipton. Ber is the first member of the Athletics to receive the Rookie-of the-year award since 2016-2017.
Several members of the Dawson Creek Canucks received NPHL honours this season, starting with bench boss Marcel Capelle. The Canucks coach was named Coach-of-the-Year after leading the team to the leagues best record this season with a 17-1-0-2. Canucks defensemen Kevin Swales was named Defensemen-of-the-year, after supporting the Dawson Creek team in their season during his 18 games played. Wes Shipton not only was the leagues leading scorer, but was also named NPHL’s best Left Wing.
The Manning Comets net minder Braden Gamble was named Best Goaltender of the year, after playing 1,145.23 minutes between the pipes this season, the most minutes played by a goalie in the league. He also led the league in wins with a 12 – 7 record this season. This is Gamble’s eighth time winning the award.
Joey Massingham has made history for the Fort St John Flyers, by receiving the 2022-2023 Gentlemanly Player Award. The forward is the first Fort St. John Flyer to receive the honour in the teams history. Massingham finished the season with only six penalty minutes, and over the past two years has recorded a grand total of 16 minutes in the sin bin.
Grimshaw Huskies Bord Hawryluk and Spirit River Rangers Dustin Sather split the 2022-2023 Best-Right-Wing title. The Rangers forward led his team in scoring coming in fourth in the league. While Hawryluk was a point per game player in the 11 games he played this season.
Finally Grimshaw Huskies forward Ty Wiebe was named the leagues Most Valuable Player, and also received the Best Centre Award. Wiebe finished third in the leagues scoring race, but would lead his team while also being on the ice for 59.02 percent of the Huskies’ goals. This is the first time a Grimshaw Huskies’ player has won MVP in over 27 years.