Jason Visser won the S43 Most Valuable Player award by a landslide, recieving majority of the votes. This time its between McFadden and Fletcher. Terrance Nova who barely recieved a vote still feels he was snubbed, and he says he’s using that disappointment as motivation every season. In an interview with SHL's Don Longbong , Nova said that he “100 percent” deserved the award.

SHLhockey.com

“I am the best player in the league. I believe that. I thought I was last season, too. I know I was the most valuable player. That’s 100 percent given all the things that happened last season and the season before…. Credit the Winnepig Jets for an incredible season and also the Edmonton Blizzards, the Stars for an unbelievable season.  They have unbelievable teams, coaching and everything. But that award means most valuable to your team. We finished fourth in the East, which nobody thought we were going to do at the beginning of the past two seasons even before we started our rebuild... We were near the top in having the most inactive team that barely show up at practice. We won most of our regular season series against teams that were playoff bound. There’s so many factors. I led the Chiefs in points with only Wozy helping me generate offense, other top scorers had multiple teammates conduct their offense. I've also been top 3 in scoring consecutive seasons and I also led in minutes played, without me there is no Minnesota Chiefs in the playoffs the past couple seasons. Like I said, I’m not taking anything away from Visseror McFadden or  whoever will win this season, but I felt I deserved the Most Valuable Player.”

If the MVP award came down to individual statistics, Nova has a pretty good argument.

Nova: 24.48 average minutes per game, 55 points, .9 points per 20, on 8.72% shooting, 36 assists, 19 goals, 95 hits and 14 shots blocked.

Fletcher: 24.58 average minutes per game, 58 points, .94 points per 20, on 12.86% shooting, 31 assists, 27 goals, 124 hits and 23 shots blocked.


Jason Visser enjoying his MVP trophy last award show

Nova barely played lesser minutes and was slightly less efficient than Fletcher, but the Chiefs relied on Nova to carry the team more than the Blizzards relied on Fletcher on a nightly basis, a big reason why Nova led all forwards in the league in assists. The Chiefs finished fourth in the Eastern Conference and made the playoffs despite Isak Odegard being traded away at the deadline, and that’s mostly because of Nova.

Fletcher, Visser and McFadden, meanwhile, were the best players on the best teams in the league, and teams that were considered top of the league playoff contenders. The Blizzards were #1 in the regular season and had one of the best win percentage out of any team in SHL history and were followed closely by Mcfadden's Stars. Visser was is a similar situation the season before, playing on a team that was one defenseman short of winning the cup.. which they eventually did this season.

Whether you side with Fletcher, McFadden or Nova, it comes down to how willing you are to reward team success versus individual stats... Nova had only 3 teammates that cracked 40 points this season compared to Fletcher having 6 teammates doing so, same story with Visser last season. This offseason voters will probably give it to McFadden who had some absurd numbers but that could change the next season— especially if Tigole Bitties puts up superhuman numbers on a mediocre Wolfpack team.