The post-season awards are starting to trickle in for the Western Conference regular season champion Vancouver Giants.
Michael Dyck has been named Western Conference Coach-of-the-Year while star blueliner Bowen Byram was a First Team All-Star. The Giants open the Western Hockey League playoffs against the Seattle Thunderbirds with games on Friday and Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.
In his first season as head coach, Dyck guided the Giants to a 48-15-3-2 record. The .743 winning percentage is the second highest in the club’s 18-year history. With Dyck at the helm the G-Men surrendered the third fewest goals-against (162) and had the fourth-best goal differential (+66). Vancouver also finished in the top-five in both power play (24.6 percent, fourth) and penalty kill (84.9 percent, second).
Nine different Giants either matched or surpassed their previous career highs in points this season with Dyck in charge.
He is up against Prince Albert’s Marc Habscheid for WHL Coach-of-the-Year honours. The winner will be announced on May 1 at the league’s awards banquet.
Byram is the first Giant to be a First Team All-Star selection since Brendan Gallagher accomplished the feat seven years ago.
Byram finished with 26 goals and 45 assists for 71 points in 67 games. His 26 goals marked a new single-season high for goals by a Giants defenceman and his 71 points put him second on the team in outright scoring and third in league scoring among all WHL blueliners. The 17-year-old’s milestones didn’t stop there. Six of his 26 goals this season were overtime winners – a new single-season WHL record.
The Cranbrook native is considered a top prospect for the 2019 NHL Draft which takes place in Vancouver in June. He was originally selected by the Giants with the third overall pick in the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft.
