Its nearly the midway mark of the season and that means the CMHL and ICHF All-Star Games are upon us! The All-Star GMs will be determined on January 14th but first, its time for you to have your say on the rosters by voting for the starting lineups of each team. You only get one vote, so choose wisely!

Click here to vote: https://www.cmhlhockey.ca/AllStarS21.php

Voting will close on Sunday, January 19th, 2024 at 12 PM EST. It is an expectation of every GM that you submit a vote and this will be the first check-in of the new year. All GMs who vote will receive a 500k bankroll bonus.

There were 23 total ballots counted.

CMHL Awards

After setting a league record with 128 points, Connor McDavid of the Toronto Maple Leafs has won both the Hart Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award, making him S20's most valuable player. McDavid received 18 Hart votes and 17 LBP votes, with some GMs simply nominating "McJesus".

In an even bigger runaway vote, Mikhail Sergachev of the Winnipeg Jets won the Norris Trophy with 20 votes. Sergachev posted the 4th best offensive season by a defenseman in CMHL history this year.

Going from wide to narrow, the Vezina Trophy came down to one vote with Matt Murray of the Winnipeg Jets claiming the trophy by a one vote margin over Ville Husso. Murray had 10 votes to Husso's 9.

Sticking with goalies, Carolina's Stuart Skinner took home the Calder Trophy with 12 votes. Necas and Gustafsson evenly split the other half of GMs.

In a double-win, Aleksander Barkov of the St. Louis Blues won both the Selke and Lady Byng Trophy in landslides, taking home 18 Selke votes and 20 Lady Byng votes. This was Barkov's 3rd Selke win in the last 4 years but his first Lady Byng win.

Not to let his teammate take home all the glory, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Conn Smythe Trophy as league MVP with 14 votes. Markstrom and McDavid evenly split the remaining votes.

ICHF Awards

Over on the farm, Anthony Cirelli of the Flaming Poo (WPG) was named league MVP, receiving 13 votes each for both the Hart Trophy and Lester B Pearson Award. Gillies and Lafreniere split the remaining Hart votes.

In a runaway, Cirelli's teammate Alex Edler of the Flaming Poo (WPG) took home the Norris Trophy with 19 votes.

Seems the goalie races were the tricky ones to win - Jake Allen of the Trail Smoke Eaters (ANA) won the Vezina with 12 votes, beating Jon Gillies (TOR) by only 3 votes.

Philipp Kurashev of the Courtenay Crusaders (OTT) pulled off a "Barkov" picking up both the Selke and Lady Byng Trophies, though the Selke was close with Kurashev winning a narrow 12-10 vote over COL's Parker Kelly. Kurashev was the runaway winner of the Lady Byng with 19 votes.

Continuing a good night for the Jets, Anthony Stolarz won the Conn Smythe Trophy for his efforts in getting the Flaming Poo on the ICHF Cup, with a 15 vote win.

GM Awards

Though he won the Cup in the other league, the habsfan93 Award for CMHL GM of the Year was given to Simon (WPG) with 16 votes. Gary was the runner-up with 5 votes.

And though he made the Cup Finals in the other league, the Jack Adams Trophy for ICHF GM of the Year was given to Gino (EDM) with 20 votes.

I guess they did good things in the leagues they won awards for too :D

Gino didn't leave the night with just one award though, as he also was awarded the AsmodeanReborn Award for League Activity, with 13 votes. Ron was the runner-up at 7 votes.

The league's GMs recognized Peter (OTT) for his commitment to submitting lines with 16 votes for the M3 Award, with Landon and Ron splitting the remaining votes.

In an extremely close contest, the Jay Award for league passion was given to myself, Mat (DAL) with 11 votes to Ron's 10 votes. I really appreciate the recognition and want to give a shout-out to Ron who is equally deserving of this award.

The Grizzlygoalie Award for decision-making prowess was given to our Cup champion Aaron (TOR) with 16 votes, with Louie the runner-up at 7 votes.

And finally, in recognition of some crafty trading, the Kookaranian Award for trading ability was given to Marty (CAR) with 12 votes, with Tyler the runner-up at 7 votes.

The following awards have been determined based on statistics/records:

CMHL Stanley Cup: Toronto
ICHF Stanley Cup: False Creek (WPG)
CMHL President's Trophy: Toronto
ICHF President's Trophy: Longueuil (EDM)
CMHL Prince of Wales Trophy: Toronto
ICHF Prince of Wales Trophy: Grand Rapids (DET)
CMHL Clarence S. Campbell Trophy: Edmonton
ICHF Clarence S. Campbell Trophy: False Creek (WPG)

CMHL Art Ross: Connor McDavid (TOR)
ICHF Art Ross: Sam Gagner (Longueuil/EDM)
CMHL Rocket Richard: Connor McDavid (TOR) and Elias Lindholm (BUF)
ICHF Rocket Richard: Anthony Cirelli (False Creek/WPG)
CMHL Jennings: Ilya Samsonov and Carey Price (VAN)
ICHF Jennings: Charlie Lindgren (Longueuil/EDM)

Now it's your chance to vote for all the other winners! Please complete the ballot found here: https://www.cmhlhockey.ca/AwardsS20.php

Voting is mandatory - your vote is considered your check-in for the beginning of the off-season to show you are still an active member of the league.

Let's break down how the CMHL Conference Finals are going at this point...

Another look at the finances for all of the franchises in the CHML.  The number's represent the current cap space each team has remaining.  Thanks in part to the recent bump in salary cap, there are only three teams with less than a million in cap room ... Columbus ($315k), Toronto ($639k) and St. Louis (671.5k).  While there are three teams with more than eight million in cap space .. Montreal ($21.4M+), Calgary ($10.4M+), Philadelphia ($8.8M+).  We spotlight Jordan Staal (picture) of the Blue Jackets, who is making $4,650,000 million for the next two seasons.  

After winning a close ICHF All-Star Game, the CMHL Eastern Conference All-Stars, led by Carolina GM Marty, came out firing early on to take home the CMHL All-Star Game by a close margin of 16-14. It was all the East in the first period as NJ's Mitch Marner set up the first three goals and the first frame finished with the East ahead of Winnipeg GM Simon's West squad by a score of 5-1. The West came back hungry in the second period, scoring 4 goals in the first four minutes to bring the score to 6-5 for the East but it wouldn't last long as the East scored 5 of the next 6 goals.

In the end, NJ's Mitch Marner was named the game's MVP, putting up two goals to go with those early three assists. PIT's Filip Forsberg and VAN's Leon Draisaitl each scored a hat trick and were named 2nd and 3rd stars of the game respectively. Other top performers in the game included CGY's Barrett Hayton and CHI's Reilly Smith who each matched Marner's five point effort and ANA's David Pastrnak with four points.

The best goaltending of the game came from LA's Cayden Primeau who faced 15 shots from the East in the second period and managed to stop nine of them, preventing what could have been a blowout and giving the West a shot in the 3rd period.

Click here for the full boxscore

The Western Conference ICHF All-Star Team tried to mount a third period comeback but fell short by a final score of 7-6 as the Eastern Conference, led by PHI GM Greg, bested the West, led by WPG GM Simon. 

The East's 2nd line was awarded all three stars for the game as they combined for three of the teams seven goals. Seth Jarvis of the Prince George Spruce Kings (CAR) was the game's MVP with a goal and two assists, while Ryan McLeod of the Montreal Maroons (MTL) and Conor Sheary of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (TOR) were the 2nd and 3rd stars of the game. 

The West was led by Kevin Hayes of the Dallas Flaming Dragons (SJ) who scored the team's final two goals as they attempted their comeback. 

The best goaltending on the night came from East starter Joseph Woll of the Hartford Wolf Pack (NYR) who stopped 7 of 8 shots coming from the West to set the tone for the East in the first period of the game. 

Click here for the full boxscore

Here are the All-Star Rosters for Season 20!

CMHL Eastern Conference

GM: Marty (CAR)

Connor McDavid (TOR) - JT Miller (FLA) - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (CAR)

Kyle Connor (CMB) - Mika Zibanejad (WAS) - Mitch Marner (NJ)

Filip Forsberg (PIT) - Jonathan Toews (NYI) - Mikko Rantanen (PHI)

Ryan O'Reilly (NYR) - Sebastian Aho (TB) - Tomas Hertl (BUF)

Shea Theodore (BUF) - Adam Fox (FLA)

Erik Karlsson (BOS) - Moritz Seider (MTL)

Adam Larsson (DET) - Jake McCabe (OTT)

Stuart Skinner (CAR)

Cam Talbot (TOR)

Malcolm Subban (OTT)

CMHL Western Conference

GM: Simon (WPG)

Connor Brown (MIN) - Leon Draisaitl (VAN) - David Pastrnak (ANA)

Taylor Hall (VGK) - Steven Stamkos (WPG) - Elias Pettersson (NSH)

Nikita Kucherov (STL) - Brock Nelson (SEA) - Tage Thompson (SJ)

Barret Hayton (CGY) - Dylan Larkin (ARI) - Rielly Smith (CHI) 

Rasmus Dahlin (EDM) - Mike Matheson (DAL)

Hampus Lindholm (WPG) - Mikhail Sergachev (WPG)

Brayden McNabb (COL) - Seth Jones (SEA)

Ilya Samsonov (VAN)

Cayden Primeau (LA)

Matt Murray (WPG)

ICHF Eastern Conference

GM: Greg (PHI)

Alexis Lafreniere (CMB) - Sam Gagner (PHI) - Evan Rodrigues (PHI)

Conor Sheary (TOR) - Ryan McLeod (MTL) - Seth Jarvis (CAR)

Ridley Greig (PIT) - Philipp Kurashev (OTT) - Warren Foegele (BOS)

Tyrell Goulbourne (NYI) - Austin Watson (NJ) - Sonny Milano (WAS)

Jamie Drysdale (MTL) - Jonas Siegenthaler (BOS)

Tyler Tucker (BUF) - Kyle Capobianco (FLA)

John Moore (DET) - Chris Wideman (TB)

Joseph Woll (NYR)

Matthew Villalta (PIT)

Jon Gillies (TOR)

ICHF Western Conference

GM: Simon (WPG)

Max Pacioretty (SEA) - Anthony Cirelli (WPG) - Wade Allison (COL)

Ondrej Palat (DAL) - Luke Kunin (SJ) - Joel Eriksson Ek (ANA)

Brandon Tanev (VAN) - Morgan Frost (ARI) - Jesse Ylonen (LA)

Kevin Hayes (SJ) - Jake Leschyschyn (NSH) - Greg McKegg (CHI)

Alex Edler (WPG) - Ian Mitchell (VGK)

Jack Johnson (EDM) - Gavin Bayreuther (WPG)

Oliver Kylington (CGY) - Egor Zamula (STL)

Chris Dreidger (SEA)

Scott Wedgewood (SJ)

Alex Stalock (MIN)

The votes are in! 30 of 32 GMs voted and here are your results with % of total votes in brackets. The 4 All-Star GMs will select the remainder of the teams. Congrats to Leon Draisaitl and Sam Gagner who had the highest vote shares in each league..

CMHL Eastern Conference

Connor McDavid TOR (60%) - JT Miller FLA (30%) - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins CAR (33%)
Shea Theodore BUF (43%) - Adam Fox FLA (40%)
Stuart Skinner CAR (33%)

Carolina and Florida each get two players voted in to the starting lineup this year, in a conference that had some very close races. Outside of McDavid, all the other spots were earned by a small number of votes and even McDavid only garnered 60% of the vote compared to 77% last year. In particular, Mika Zibanejad (WAS) at C and Nathan MacKinnon (TOR) at RW lost their respective races by only one vote.  Other close runner-ups include Jake Oettinger (NYR) and Dougie Hamilton (CAR). This is the third consecutive year that McDavid has been voted on to the East starting lineup while Adam Fox makes his second All-Star appearance and the four others are first-timer All-Stars.

CMHL Western Conference

Connor Brown MIN (30%) - Leon Draisaitl VAN (63%) - David Pastrnak ANA (57%)
Rasmus Dahlin EDM (53%) - Mike Matheson DAL (30%)
Ilya Samsonov VAN (40%)

The West was slightly more decisive this year than the East, which hasn't been the case in the last two years. The tighest vote was at LW where all the candidates received a decent number of votes, with Dubois (LA) and McCann (COL) each coming up a couple of votes shy of Brown. While Dahlin got a clear majority vote, the second defensemen split GM opinions, with Matheson just narrowly edging out Hampus Lindholm (WPG) by one vote. In net, Hill (SJ) and Murray (WPG) had GMs split and tied for the runner-up spot. It's the second year in a row that Draisaitl (VAN) has been voted into the starting lineup and a third All-Star appearance in 4 years for Ilya Samsonov (VAN) though his first time being voted in. Brown, Pastrnak, Dahlin and Matheson will all be making their first All-Star appearances.

ICHF Eastern Conference

Alexis Lafreniere CMB (50%) - Sam Gagner PHI (77%) - Evan Rodrigues PHI (50%)
Jamie Drysdale MTL (70%) - Jonas Siegenthaler BOS (50%)
Joseph Woll TOR (67%)

ICHF Western Conference

Max Pacioretty SEA (43%) - Anthony Cirelli WPG (47%) - Wade Allison COL (43%)
Alex Edler WPG (67%) - Ian Mitchell VGK (40%)
Chris Driedger SEA (37%)

Of note, this is the third consecutive season that Seattle has had a different goalie voted in to the All-Star game...first Jack Campbell in S18, Cal Petersen in S19 and now Driedger. Whatever they're putting in the water of their goalies in Seattle, I'd like some!

Another look at the finances for all of the franchises in the CHML.  The number's represent the current cap space each team has remaining.  There are two teams with less than two hundred thousand in cap room ... Seattle Kraken has $150,000 in cap space, while the team tightest to the cap ceiling is the Nashville Predators that is currently over the cap by $124,750. We spotlight Elias Pettersson (picture) of the Predators who is making $4,950,000 million for the next four seasons.