The SJHL has handed out its year-end hardware for top players - and Xavier Lapointe will have his name on one of the biggest awards.
Lapointe was named SJHL defenceman of the year by the league April 20, becoming the third Bomber D-man to earn the honour in the past decade.
In his first season as a Bomber, the Quebec City native put up 50 points in 58 games, leading the Bombers in scoring and being a key presence on the team's power-play and top pair, along with Bomber vet Cole Vardy. Lapointe has added three points in 10 playoff games with the Bombers so far this year.
Lapointe has committed to join the NCAA's Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers next season.
"[Lapointe] dominated the SJHL from the start this year, ending up with 19 goals and 50 points – both the best in the league among defencemen – while playing in all 58 games on the Bombers’ back end," reads the SJHL's award winners blurb about the defender.
All other SJHL awards were won, strangely enough, by the two teams Lapointe and Bombers eliminated from the playoffs this year. Humboldt's Rayce Ramsay walked away with player of the year, most valuable player and top goaltender honours, while Connor McGrath was honoured as the league's top forward, rookie of the year and top scorer.
Ramsay was a workhorse in the Humboldt net all season, playing 50 of 58 games and ending the season with a 41-9 record, a 1.98 goals-against-average and a .930 save percentage, while McGrath surged all season long for the Broncos, ending with 84 points in 56 games.
Both Ramsay and McGrath played all five games with the Broncos when the Bombers knocked them out of the playoffs earlier this month. Against the Bombers in their second round series, Ramsay's numbers improved, putting up a .948 save percentage and a 1.80 goals-against-average in their five games, while McGrath was more or less shut down, putting up two points and being held off the scoresheet in the last three games.
The league's most sportsmanlike player award went to Battlefords North Stars captain Ryland McNinch, while Brayden Klimosko repeated as SJHL coach of the year, winning it for the second consecutive season. McNinch put up a hat-trick in Game 1 of the Stars' first-round series with the Bombers and finished with six points in six games - Klimosko led the Stars to a 35-17-5-1 record and fourth place in the SJHL this year.
Lapointe's win as best defenceman puts him in elite Bomber company. In 2017, Eric Sinclair won the award after a dominant season that saw him score at over a point-per-game pace, putting up 46 points in 44 games and adding 13 points in 16 playoff games. Josh Roach also won the award in 2013, with 54 points in 53 games.
Sinclair joined the NCAA's Univ. of Alaska-Anchorage after winning the award, while Roach would go on to play five seasons with the Univ. of Saskatchewan Huskies before embarking on a pro career in Europe.
