The British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) announced their league award winners Friday and Penticton Vees’ Tyson Jost, Dante Fabbro and Head Coach Fred Harbinson were amongst the winners.
Jost won the Vern Dye Memorial Trophy as BCHL MVP, Fabbro was named the Top Defenceman and Harbinson was announced as the BCHL Coach of the Year.
Jost has 40 goals and 100 points heading into the final weekend of the regular season and owns the highest points per-game average in the league at 2.17. The Vees’ Captain is currently riding a 14-game point streak and has scored in seven straight games. Only teammate Scott Conway and Nanaimo’s Sheldon Rempal have more points than the 17-year-old.
Jost says being nominated was an honour itself, considering the nominees, “It’s special but Scott (Conway) could have easily been nominated for the award and Rempal and Jordan Kawaguchi are both amazing players and it could have gone either way, so it’s humbling to be recognized like this.”
Jost is the first Vee to win the BCHL MVP award since 2011 when defenceman Joey Laleggia was bestowed the honour. The North Dakota commitment is the 22nd player in franchise history to be named league MVP, and joins the likes of Brett Hull, Paul Kariya and Joe Murphy to be named the league’s best.
Fabbro is the fifth Vees’ defenceman in the last six seasons to be named the BCHL’s Top Defenceman and first since Brett Beauvais in 2014. Fabbro leads on BCHL rear-guards in points with 63, despite only playing in 43 games. Fabbro is second in goals (14) and assists (49) but is head and shoulders above any other blue-liner in points per-game average (1.47).
Fabbro says sharing the honour with the organization makes it that much better, “It’s definitely a huge honor and sharing the recognition with Tyson winning MVP and Fred winning Coach of the Year, makes it that much more special not only for us but the entire team.”
Fabbro is the 11th defenceman in franchise history to win the BCHL’s Top Defenceman award and past alumni to win include Duncan Keith, Mike Reilly, Troy Stecher and Joey Laleggia.
This is Fred Harbinson’s third Coach of the Year award as he won previously in 2008 and 2012. Harbinson has guided the Vees to their fifth consecutive Division title and their second consecutive BCHL regular season championship. The Vees sport a gaudy 49-6-1-0 record heading into the final two games of the regular season. Harbinson is the only three-time winner in franchise history, and this is the ninth time a Vees’ coach has the award.
