Captain Evan Herman speaks at the Raiders Awards Banquet. (Submitted Photo/Mark Peterson Media)

By Logan Lehmann

Raiders Awards

Laughs, tears, and cheers: Raiders hand out annual season Awards to begin the wrap up of 2022-23 campaign

Mar 22, 2023 | 10:01 AM

Players, family, friends, and supporters of the Prince Albert Raiders gathered in the Ches Leach Lounge inside the Art Hauser Centre on Tuesday night for the annual Raiders Awards Banquet.

The night was more than the awards that were presented and more about the players and the three graduating vets on this year’s Raiders team: Evan Herman, Landon Kosior, and Keaton Sorensen.

“Evan, Landon, you guys had some great opportunities,” said Raiders General Manager Curtis Hunt. “It wasn’t easy for either of these young players to make that decision to come to Prince Albert, you had options and certainly made me work for it, I do remember that and I am grateful that you made (that choice) to play here.”

“Keaton, your path was a little bit different, I just stole him from Red Deer,” he said jokingly. “I’ll tell you what Shaun Sutter (Ass’t GM of Red Deer Rebels) said, he said to me ‘you’re going to win this deal. You’ve acquired a good player, a skilled player, but a better person’ and he wasn’t lying. I was glad to make you a Raider.”

Along with the rest of the team, nobody knows better than the coaching staff, having spent many hours coaching, travelling, laughing and sharing memories with the players.

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Head coach Jeff Truitt said a few words during the ceremony and shared stories from this past season and finished things off by thanking the boys for a memorable season.

“As we retire a roster of players, I want to thank you guys for believing, working, being together, performing through good times and bad,” he said. “We go through the emotions and we talked about this, sometimes we laugh together, sometimes we cry together, and sometimes we get frustrated with each other, but that’s what a family does, we work things out. Our group has been so good, little jokes here and there like all dressing rooms do, but we’ve got a unique group. You can just see the bond and you can see the tightness of our group because of their performance on the ice and they never give up and they always push each other.”

The Raiders bench boss continued by thanking the three overage players for their commitment to the team which was then followed up by a short speech from captain and four-year veteran with the club, Evan Herman who thanked those who helped him during his time in Prince Albert, and let his emotions show just how appreciative he was for the organization.

“Over the years I’ve learned a lot here, not just as a hockey player, but as a person,” he said teary-eyed. “What (the coaches) go through to make you who you are. Also to the parents, all the sacrifices you guys go through to give us a chance to play the game we love. You guys mean more to us than you could ever imagine. To the billets, for letting us have a place to stay, for letting us have a place to call home. It’s not easy moving away from home, some days when you need to get away from the rink you go home and your billets are always there with a smile on their face.”

“They’re the backbone to our team and we believe without them or without them cooking our meals or our pregame, life would be pretty hard if you had to cook your own pregame I can tell you that,” he continued laughing. “These four years I’ve been able to represent the PA logo and to play for this organization, I’ve been very lucky to be surrounded by such great people and great kids, you’ve all become my best friends. Thank you everyone in PA and to all my teammates for the best years of my life.”

(Submitted Photo/Mark Peterson Media)

Here is the complete list of Raiders’ award winners from this year’s banquet:

Belle Merrell & Calla Grasley Scholastic Player of the Year: Harrison Lodewyk

Best Conditioned Raider: Owen Boucher and Aiden Oiring

Lionel Diehl Memorial Hardest Working Player: Evan Herman

Best Defensive Forward: Keaton Sorensen

Ches Leach Most Improved Player: Eric Johnston and Max Hildebrand

Jim Neilson Most Valuable Defenceman: Landon Kosior

Three Stars Awards: 3rd Star— Sloan Stanick, 2nd Star— Ryder Ritchie, 1st Star— Keaton Sorensen

Players Choice Award: Landon Kosior

George Cowie Rookie of the Year: Ryder Ritchie

Humanitarian of the Year: Max Hildebrand

Leading Scorer: Landon Kosior

Fan Choice: Grady Martin

Orland Kurtenbach Most Valuable Player: Landon Kosior

The Raiders will begin the wrap-up of the regular season this weekend, starting on Friday night when they host the Moose Jaw Warriors in the final home game of the year. They follow up that contest by heading south to the Queen City to close out the season against the Regina Pats on Saturday night.

Rob Mahon will be on the call for both games and you can catch the action on 900 CKBI. The pregame show starts at 6:30 pm for either game with the puck drop at 7 pm.

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logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann