The Prairie Junior Hockey League handed out their annual awards with a Humboldt resident taking home one of them, as Dawson Atamanchuk took home the Rookie of the Year honours.
The award was selected through a voting process that included each of the 13 teams in the league.
Atamanchuk said he was extremely happy when he found out he won the award and said it was nice to be rewarded for his hard work.
“It’s not something you set out to win it’s definitely not the end goal but it’s a nice honour to pick up. Just to be recognized for hard work, it was pretty cool.”
Atamanchuk’s coach with the Delisle Chiefs, Eric Ditto, said that it came as no surprise to him when he found out that he had been named the Rookie of the Year.
“I felt that he was the correct choice for that award and I think he deserved it because as a first year player he was a dominant player every game and against any opponent.”
Atamanchuk is in his first season in the league as a member of the Delisle Chiefs and amassed an eye-popping 70 points in 37 games to lead all rookies in scoring and lead his own team in scoring as well.
Atamanchuk was instrumental in helping his Chiefs improve from a 19-17-2 record to a record of 31-8-1 resulting in a first round playoff by this season.
Ditto called Atamanchuk “one of our smarter players” and says he has really enjoyed coaching him this season and says he is a big part of their team in all situations.
“It’s been awesome, he plays in all situations, power play, penalty kill, he’s really easy to coach. He asks questions, he always wants to know ways that he can improve. He’s just been a great player to have around,” Ditto said.
Atamanchuk said he really appreciates that Ditto has such faith in him but says that some of the credit has to go to his line mates who help make the game easier for him.
“To be relied on like that, it really helps to have good line mates. I played with them all year so we got to know each other pretty well. To have guys looking for you and they know that you’ll give the puck back so it was pretty cool to be out there in those high pressure situations, it’s a lot of fun.”
Atamanchuk’s feat is even more impressive given that this is only his second season playing hockey again after taking his first two years of midget off.
Taking those two years off was really hard on him, not so much in terms of his skills since he says he still skated, he just was not playing but more emotionally being away from the game was hard.
“When you’re not playing and just watching it, it’s a really hard pill to swallow and I missed it so much and I came back to it with a new energy for the game. A new heart for it,” said Atamanchuk.
Last season with the Humboldt Midget AA Broncos Atamanchuk showed that taking two years off did not hurt his game too much as he scored 33 points in 19 games. This season showed that as he gets back into the swing of things on the ice he is only going to get better as he scored an even higher points per game total.
Ditto says he could not imagine the kind of player Atamanchuk might be if he had not taken those two years off.
“It’s kind of scary to think what he could have done or where he could have been if he didn’t take those years off but that was one big thing when he heard he had taken a few years off we were pretty surprised that he still brought that much to the game,” said Ditto.
Coming into training camp in the fall Ditto had heard about Atamanchuk and knew that he had taken two years off from hockey so he was a little apprehensive at the beginning of training camp but he says it did not take long before he became a big believer in Atamanchuk’s game.
“We heard that and didn’t really know what to expect in camp but right from the time that he came out in camp he looked like he hadn’t taken any time off at all.”
Looking ahead to next year Atamanchuk is focused on trying to play junior A somewhere. As of right now Atamanchuk is not property to any one team meaning he is free to play with any team in any province. His first choice would be for his hometown Broncos but says that just playing somewhere is his focus.
“Being from Humboldt it would be an honour to play in front of the hometown. It would be a lot of fun but anywhere I can play next year, that’s my goal right now.”
Ditto says that right now it is hard to say where Atamanchuk will be playing next year but he says he hopes that a junior A team gives him a chance.
“As long as somebody gives him an opportunity I would say that he’s probably going to end up playing junior A. I would hope for his sake that he takes the leap up to the (Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League).”
As for Atamanchuk’s future goals in hockey he says he would like to see where it takes him, hoping one day he can play some college hockey.
“I would like to see where it takes me for sure. If I ever were to have the opportunity to play college hockey that’s the dream, that would be unbelievable and it would be super cool to be able to do that.”
For now Atamanchuk is focused solely on the playoffs and hopes his team can do well and potentially even win the whole league.
