Prestigious award for Peters
Of the multiple honours that the Ontario Hockey League awards annually one of the most heartfelt and sentimental is the Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy.
The Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy was initiated effective the 2008-2009 season in honour of the former Windsor Spitfires team leader who passed away suddenly on February 18, 2008 from a rare heart condition.
Since the ’08-09 season, the Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy is awarded to one OHL captain every year. A media selection committee is given the job to choose the OHL team captain that best exemplifies leadership on and off the ice, with a passion and dedication to the game and his community as was demonstrated by the late Spitfires captain.
The winner of the Renaud Trophy for the 2016-2017 season is Flint Firebirds overage defenseman Alex Peters, who was clearly touched by the honour upon its announcement by the OHL.
“I am very honoured to receive the Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy,” said Peters. “It is a prestigious award, with special meaning named in memory of a great person. I would like to thank the Firebirds’ coaching staff and my fellow teammates for believing in me as captain, because the way I see it, we had a room full of leaders that all stepped up when they needed to.
“I would also like to say thank you to the Renaud family for giving us an example like Mickey to try to live up to,” Peters added.
Firebirds head coach Ryan Oulahen gushed sentences of many words about his graduated captain.
“Alex is a special person,” Oulahen began. “He was responsible for setting a great culture on and off the ice. His work habits, positive outlook, relentless approach to getting better, attention to detail, determination, sincere demeanor, maturity and overall competitiveness are just a few of the characteristics Alex showed on and off the ice on a daily basis.
“Alex believed in Flint and the process it took to put (a second-year Firebirds franchise) on the map,” summed up Oulahen.
Zero surprise from me. Alex Peters and his family are quality people. Whalers captain Chris Terry won the first Renaud award.