(Photo: Rob Wallator)

By Troy Gillard

handing out the hardware

Sakowich wins big as Rebels announce year-end player awards

Apr 7, 2020 | 5:01 PM

The Red Deer Rebels have announced their player award winners for the 2019-20 season.

In a season that ended five games early due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the Rebels compiled a 24-33-3-3 record in 63 contests. They ended the season playing some of their best hockey of the year, going 6-3-1 in their final 10 contests.

Defenceman Ethan Sakowich was honoured with four awards, including Most Valuable Player, Defenceman of the Year, and the Player’s Award, as voted on by his teammates.

Sakowich, who became team captain in January following the trade of Dawson Barteaux to Winnipeg, took over to become the anchor of the Rebels blue line core. The Athabasca native finished his 20-year-old campaign with 11 goals and 17 assists in 63 games. He also had 63 penalty minutes and 133 shots on goal.

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Sakowich and fellow 20-year-old Cameron Hausinger were honoured with the ATB Financial Humanitarians of the Year for their work in the local community throughout the season.

Finnish defenceman Christoffer Sedoff is the winner of the rdnewsNOW, BIG 106 and 106.7 The Drive Rookie of the Year award. The team’s selection in the 2019 CHL Import Draft came to Red Deer and collected five goals and 14 points in 61 games played. NHL Central Scouting has Sedoff ranked 50^th among North American Skaters for the 2020 NHL Draft.

Arshdeep Bains took the Rebels’ Leading Scorer Award. The 18-year-old forward from Surrey, BC led all Rebels players with 51 points (18 goals, 33 assists) in 63 games played.

This year’s Most Underrated Player is Red Deer native Josh Tarzwell, who led the Rebels this season with 32 goals, a big jump from his previous career high of 11.

Goaltender Ethan Anders was honoured with the Booster Juice Three Stars Award. This despite the fact that Anders went two months between starts due to injury. In 35 appearances this season the Pilot Butte, Saskatchewan native had a 0.888 save-percentage and 3.67 goals-against-average.