Cade Bell, middle, accepts his award for hardest worker from Flyers’ staff, GM Justin Solcz, head coach Dale Mitchell, assistant coach Kyle Quick and goalie coach Matt Anthony.
Photo courtesy of Garrett Fodor/Leamington Flyers

Flyers hold year-end banquet, award trophies

The Leamington Flyers held their year-end banquet at the Leamington Lebanese Club on Tuesday, April 9, inviting volunteers, staff and players to wrap up the season in style.

The Flyers bowed out in four straight games to defending champions Collingwood Blues last week after a successful inaugural season in the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

The Flyers finished third in the West Conference and swept Georgetown in the opening round of the playoffs. Then they dispatched the Milton Menace in five games before losing to Collingwood in the Western Conference finals.

After dinner was finished, the Flyers presented their annual awards.

Forward Cade Bell was presented with the hardest worker award. He tallied 28 points in 56 regular season games and added another six points in the playoffs.

The team’s unsung hero award went to Alex Cunningham who totaled 57 points in 55 games for the Flyers this year and added 10 playoff points.

Captain Cayden Faust took home two awards — leading scorer and regular season MVP. Faust led the team in regular season scoring with 63 points in 54 games and also led them in the playoffs with an additional 17 points.

Rookie of the year was Wheatley native Cameron Arquette, who took the award based on an excellent rookie season. Arquette also got into a few games with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers, who drafted him in last summer’s OHL Priority Draft. The flashy centreman had 43 points in 45 regular season games for the Flyers, while tabbing six goals and six assists in the playoffs.

The Flyers’ top defenceman award this year went to Anthony Ciaramitaro, who led all Flyer defencemen with 34 points. He added another seven in the playoffs.

Of course the playoff MVP award went to standout goaltender Sebastian Gatto, who had an outstanding regular season and spectacular playoffs. His 2.23 goals-against-average and .928 save percentage earned him a spot on the NHL Central Scouting list. In the playoffs, he improved those numbers to 2.13 and .932.

The coaches award went to two players who were members of last year’s Sutherland Cup team, forward Adrian Bosev and defenceman Nick Mahy.

Bosev put up 28 points in the regular season and followed that with another seven in the playoffs, while Mahy had 11 points in the regular campaign and three in the playoffs.

Then came time for the Flyers’ volunteer of the year award, which was awarded to Janice Elliott, who accepted her award from the OJHL Volunteer of the Year herself — Cheryl Issell.