Around The AHL: The ballots, please

It is time to hand out AHL awards

Determining award winners in a 31-team league is at best a complicated equation even in the most normal of times.

In a season in which roster upheaval became a daily occurrence, teams played very limited schedules and a flood of 18- and 19-year-old first-round talent poured into the league?

That process becomes downright gridlocked this season as I tried to sort through a slew of candidates. The process ended up taking hours before I could finally settle on a list of winners. Even with decisions based on a season of viewing games nightly (along with plenty of those new weekday afternoon tilts), interviews with management, head coaches and players throughout the far-flung AHL, the decisions did not come easily.

But the AHL is handing out player awards this season, and so am I. Without further ado, here are this season’s choices.