RIMOUSKI, Que. - Jon Blum says Brett Connolly has a bright future. The CHL couldn‘t agree more. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Connolly was named the Canadian Hockey League‘s rookie of the year at its annual awards gala. Playing for his hometown Prince George Cougars of the WHL, the recently turned 17-year-old scored 30 goals and tallied 60 points in 65 games this past season. Connolly was selected over Evgeny Grachev of the OHL‘s Brampton Battalion and Dmitry Kulikov of the QMJHL‘s Drummondville Voltigeurs. Previous CHL rookie-of-the-year winners include Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Sidney Crosby, Vincent Lecavalier and Joe Thornton to name a few. Connolly was also the WHL‘s rookie-of-the-year winner. "Winning the WHL award was a good honour, but this one is even better," said Connolly, who arrived in Rimouski on Friday morning and flies out today. "I‘m happy I got to come here with my dad and take this in. This has been a really good experience." "Brett‘s a tremendous player," said Blum, who also won an impressive piece of hardware, being named the CHL‘s defenceman of the year. "To get 30 goals, especially in the WHL, where there‘s a lot more checking and a lot less offence than other leagues, he‘s going to be a heck of a player. "You might see him only for two years in the WHL, so try to watch him when you can." Other award winners were John Tavares of the OHL‘s London Knights for top draft prospect, Bob Boughner of the OHL‘s Windsor Spitfires as coach of the year and Cody Hodgson of the OHL‘s Brampton Battalion as player of the year. Yannick Riendeau of the QMJHL‘s Drummondville Voltigeurs was also recognized as the CHL‘s top scorer. The WHL, meanwhile, won a third award when defenceman Stefan Elliott of the Saskatoon Blades was named the scholastic player of the year. The North Vancouver product and Grade 12 student earned a 93.3 per cent grade average during his first semester at Marion Graham Collegiate in Saskatoon. "This is a great honour and it‘s a great experience coming here and watching part of the Memorial Cup," said Elliott, who had 16 goals and 55 points in 70 games this past season and is draft eligible this June. "You get to see all the hard work that‘s really put into this (tournament)." Elliott also put some hard work into his speech, as the 18-year-old ended it by speaking the last few sentences in French. The crowd, filled mostly with locals in this mostly French-only city of 45,000, loved the effort and gave Elliott the loudest cheer of the gala. Top of Page
