Individual Islanders Honoured

After winning the Stanley Cup, CLUTCH`s ultimate trophy, a few months ago, a number of New York Islanders were recently honoured for their individual achievements, at an all star gala event at league headquarters in Melbourne Australia.

Centre Joe Sakic, acquired in the offseason last year, was the most decorated pro player of the evening, as he was named winner of the Hart Trophy for regular season MVP, the Conn Smythe as MVP of the playoffs, Molson Cup Winner for most star points accumulated during the regular season. In addition, Sakic was a co-winner of the Lester B. Pearson award, splitting honours with the Minnesota Wild`s Vincent Lecavalier. “It`s an honour to share this with Vinny, and I guess it`s kind of a mix of the old guard and the new. I`ve been fortunate enough to win a number of trophies over my CLUTCH career, and you can be damn sure this is only the first of many for Vinny Lecavalier.”

GM Ryan Long couldn`t heap enough praise on his star vet. “When we traded for Sakic, we gave up some fantastic talent [The Isles acquired Sakic and Pavol Datsyuk from the Coyotes for Martin St. Louis, Alexei Yashin, and a draft pick], but it was in the hopes of getting this team another Stanley Cup. Joe was vital to getting that done this year, as evidenced by his 15 goals and 25 assists for us in the playoffs.”

Sakic wasn`t the only Islander who took home some hardware. Captain Mike Peca won home the Art Ross award, while defenseman Christian Ehroff won the Bud Light Plus Minus award with his +44 rating on the year.

After playing 2^nd fiddle to Dan Cloutier for the previous 2 years, Islander goaltender David Aebischer truly stepped into the spotlight this yr, and was recognized snagging both the William Jennings and the Vezina trophy.