For sure, general managers in the EURO League will have five good choices to vote for when it comes time to award the Player of the Year Trophy at the end of Season 12. It’s possible goalies Matt Murray (Oslo) and Kari Ramo (Helsinki) will be among the choices. Many believe they deserve to be there since they both flirted with league records this year. And if a defenseman gets on the ballot, it is likely to be Maxim Chudinov of Minsk. Centers Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Berlin) and Helsinki centers Jonathan Toews and Anze Kopitar are very likely to be among your choices, and perhaps winger Taylor Hall (Helsinki) or Oslo center Connor McDavid.

But who are some of the players who deserve something – even if it’s just a mention here – for the seasons they’ve put together? Feel free to add your own mention-worthy players in the comment section.

Producers

Sidney Crosby (Gothenburg) The “fragile” 35-year-old center played in all 82 and he scored 90 points, putting him 17th in the league. Of the top 40 scorers in the league, Crosby plays the lowest amount (15 minutes per game).

Matt Duchene (Belfast) The 31-year-old Giant reached at least 30 goals and 70 assists for the second straight year.

Simon Hjalmarsson (Copenhagen) The reliable Swede has been a key part of two championships and his season was similar to the previous two. He played just 12 minutes per game and scored 29 goals and 67 points with a +24 turnover ratio.

Dominik Lakatos (London) topped 90 points for the second time in his four seasons and he’s money in the shootout. He took 8 shootout shots and scored on all but one of them.

Impact players

The London defense duo of Brenden Dillon and Daniel Fernholm were the best parts of the London HC squad this season. At +24, they were the best on the team, they dished out 553 total hits and the each blocked 83 or more shots. Dillon finishes as the league’s top hitter (306) and Fernholm tied for 7th.

Mikhail Pashnin (London) The former Gothenburg Goon played in England this season and got into a league-high 10 fights. He now ranks 7th all-time in that category even though he has only played 5 seasons. Bratislava’s giant, 6-7, 235-pound Juraj Valach got into 8 fights and was a decisive winner in 6 of them.

Hampus Lindholm (Dublin) led the league’s defensemen in shot blocks and takeaways and he was 13th in hits. He also tied Justin Schultz (Athens) for the most ice time among blueliners.

Marcus Folilgno (Athens) increased his point production from a previous personal best of 39 to 53 this season while being one of the top hitters in the league, if you consider he had 116 in just 13 minutes per game.

Ironman

Sean Couturier (Madrid) When the Royals’ top center played 26 minutes Tuesday against Gothenburg, it was his 82nd game of the season. It was also the 12th season in which he has played all 82 games. In other words, Couturier has played in every game of Madrid’s existence in the league.

Breakouts and Bouncebacks

Cody Eakin (St. Petersburg) Until joining St. Petersburg this season, the 30-year-old center’s best season was 42 points. But this year, he tallied 27 goals and 72 points playing with fellow newcomers Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar on the Krasnyye Zvezdy’s second line.

Artturi Lehkonen (Moscow) The Finn is in his fifth season and his first with the Maniacs. He gets a good amount of ice time in Moscow and was able to raise his personal best point total from 27 to 60.

Mitch Marner (Belfast) It’s probably not too difficult for a young skill player to excel while playing on the Giants’ second line, but Marner really showed his talent this season. He was voted onto the all-star team and scored 37 goals and 88 points, an increase of 24 points from Season 11.

Loui Eriksson (Paris) He was, for all intents, out of the game, having played only 7 games in Season 11. But the 37-year-old played the whole year on the Rouge Eiffels’s second line and he produced 200 shots and 69 points.

Tomas Hyka (Edinburgh) the 26-year-old Czech forward seemed to come out of nowhere to produce 64 points at 15 minutes per game. He had 37 last season.

Bobby Ryan (Minsk) His point totals dropped from 78 to 59 to 36 the last three seasons and it seemed Ryan was fading into history. But the Hussars gave the 35-year-old another chance and he paid them back with 25 goals and 73 points. He finished with a flurry, scoring 4 points against Belfast in Minsk’s final game on Tuesday.

Derek Ryan (Vienna) Another Ryan saw his point total shoot up from 19 in Oslo to 48 in Austria. His previous best total was 36 with Berlin in Season 7.

Good Defense

Ryan Strome (Zurich) The 29-year-old is now ahead of legend Patrice Bergeron and Brayden Point on the Lions’ depth chart and Strome has lodged himself in all discussions of the league’s top centers. He scored 32 goals and had 55 assists, to give him a 25-point improvement from the personal best he set last season. He was 3rd among all EURO forwards in shot blocks and 5th in takeaways.

Erik Forssell (Berlin) was the third-line center for the Smurfs but only two of his teammates had more takeaways than his 85 and only two forwards blocked more shots. He scored 44 points, which is good, but Forssell was a valuable checking center when he wasn’t being poisoned by Rose’s cookies. (It’s a long story.)

Colton Parayko (Geneva) scored 41 points from the blueline but contributed even more in his half of the rink. He placed in the top 5 among all EURO defensemen in both shot blocks and takeaways. He was also 17th in hits.