2018-2019 Season Recap
 
 
  The 2018-2019 WHL season saw the Oyster Bay Liberty continue their league domination with their second championship in a row, and their 4th in only 7 WHL seasons. The Liberty won by having an incredible seven players having career years, Mackinnon 41, Atkinson 41, Point 41, Couturier 33, Horvat 27, DeBrusk 27 and Coleman 22 goals. Steven Stamkos also rebounded with 41 goals after 2 sub-par seasons. The Liberty took over first place by winning the November Team of the Month with 87 goals and led the league from that point on. This is now 5 seasons in a row that the Oyster Bay Liberty finish in the money standings, tying the Reservoir Dogs for 2nd most ever. Liberty only failed one time to finish in the money standings and that was in the 2002-2003 campaign, when they finished in eighth place. Also the Liberty become only the second team to win back to back championships besides the Bada Bing, who did it twice. Oytser Bay Liberty is now tied with the Sudbury Wolves with 4 WHL championships, the second best behind Bada Bing's five. Next season Liberty can attempt to tie Bada Bing's league record of 3 consecutive championships and five overall. With this win the Oyster Bay Liberty move up to 3rd overall in the Prize Money Rankings of all time. 
 
Coming in second place, their highest finish ever, was Winter is Coming with 411 goals. WIC powered to a second place finish by making wise selections in the entry draft (despite a somewhat weak 1st round selection, Lee 28 goals) like their 5th round pick DeBrincat 41 goals and 3rd round pick Guentzel 40 goals. If you thought Liberty's 7 players having career years was impressive, Winter is Coming bested that with an astounding eight players having career years. DeBrincat, Guentzel, Pastrnak, Scheifele, Hertl, Arvidsson, Gallagher, and Meier had career years and if defenseman Dumba did not get injured he would have had a career year too. Winter is Coming started the season strong by winning the October Team of the Month award with 76 goals. With this 2nd place finish Winter is Coming moved up to the 15th overall place for total winnings.
 
Big Three wanted one more month added to the season for a chance at first place, but had to settle for third place. The hard charging Big Three won the final two Team of the Months to climb in the standings, blowing past four team that were ahead of him at the start of February.  Led by the leagues 2nd best scorer Leon Draisaitl's 50 goals and John Tavare's 47 goals Big Three made it into the money standings for the fourth straight season and the eighth time in ten seasons. Big Three is now in 6th place in the overall money winnings, not bad for a team only participating in 10 of the 21 seasons of the WHL.
 
Rounding out the money winners were the two original members and only members to participate in every season of the WHL, the Sudbury Wolves and Helmut. The Sudbury Wolves limped into fourth place by collapsing in the final month after being in second place the majority of the season. When the final month of the season started the Wolves were solidly in second place, 5 goals ahead of Winter is Coming and 21 goals ahead of Big Three. Both of those teams out scored the Wolves by 26 and 30 goals respectively in the final month of March. Although the Wolves had the rookie of the year, Pettersson 28 goals and defenseman of the year Rielly 20 goals, they were lucky to hang on to fourth place. Despite the collapse the Sudbury Wolves captured a league record 15th year in the money standings and remains second overall in total money winnings.
 
Also having a poor final month of the season Helmut was unable to take advantage of the Wolves collapse, but still managed to hold onto the final money spot with 378 goals. Helmut was able to hold off Son of Rudy and the Flyers for the final money position with top scorers Patrick Kane 44 goals and Gaudreau 36 goals. By winning the January Team of the Month, Helmut was able to capture an 11th season in the money standings and fourth overall in total winnings all time. 
 
The remaining teams of Son of Rudy, Flyers, Bada Bing, Blackhawks, Reservoir Dogs and Vandelay Industries will need to wait for next season to chase the dream of being the WHL champions!

 
Individual Player Awards for the 2018-209 WHL Season
 
Most Valuable Player:  Alex Ovechkin 51 goals  -  Vandelay Industries
Rookie of the Year:  Elias Pettersson  28 goals  -  Sudbury Wolves
Defenseman of the Year:  Morgan Rielly 20 goals  - Sudbury Wolves

 
Other interesting notes of this past season;
1. Oyster Bay Liberty is the only team to have scored more goals with their originally drafted team than their final roster with trades and re-entry draft picks.

2. The Sudbury Wolves made eight trades involving 23 players, added two players from the re-entry draft and still scored the exact amount of goals as his original drafted team would have had with 382.
 

 
BEST SELECTION EACH ROUND    
Round Pick # Player Goals Team
Best 1st round pick #3: Ovechkin 51 Vandelay Industries
Best 2nd round pick #13:
Tavares 47 Big Three
Best 3rd round pick #29:  
Kane 44 Helmut
Best 4th round pick #42:  
Point 41 Oyter Bay Liberty
Best 5th round pick #55:
DeBrincat 41 Winter is Coming
Best 6th round pick #63:
Barkov 35 Blackhawks
Best 7th round pick #78: 
Atkinson 41 Oyster Bay Liberty
Best 8th round pick #95:
Begeron 32 Son of Rudy
Best 9th round pick #100:
Hoffman 36 Sudbury Wolves
Best 10th round pick #113:
Hertl 35 Winter is Coming
Best 11th round pick #126: Couturier 33 Oyster Bay Liberty
Best 12th round pick #136:
Stone 33 Reservoir Dogs
Best 13th round pick #155:
Larkin 32 Big Three
Best 14th round pick #158:
Toews 35 Flyers
Best 15th round pick #172:
Athanasiou 30 Sudbury Wolves
Best 16th round pick #184:
Johnson 29 Reservoir Dogs
Best 17th round pick #196:
Saad 23 Sudbury Wolves
Best 18th round pick #212:
E Lindholm 27 Sudbury Wolves
Best 19th round pick #217: Perron 23 Son of Rudy
Best 20th round pick #236:
Vrana 24 Sudbury Wolves
 
 
     
EXTRA PICKS
     
Best 21th round pick #246:
Vesey 17 Big Three
Best 22th round pick #247:
D Strome 20 Oyster Bay Liberty
Best 23th round pick #251:
Rasmussen ** 8 Bada Bing
 
 
 
The standings from the original drafted teams, no re-entry, no trades.

 
TEAM TOTAL
Oyster Bay Liberty 427
Winter is Coming 388
Sudbury Wolves 382
Big Three 376
Helmut 367
Son of Rudy 362
Flyers 354
Bada Bing 334
Blackhawks 317
Reservoir Dogs 311
Vandalay Industries 308