Matthew Seminoff was awarded as the Diamond in the Rough by the Blazers, who will be revealing award-winners all this week (Image Credit: Kamloops Blazers)

By Chad Klassen

BLAZERS AWARDS

Blazers reveal first wave of 2021 award winners

Aug 16, 2021 | 5:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kamloops Blazers, after a shortened season, are slowly rolling out their yearly awards.

On Monday (Aug. 16), they unveiled Josh Pillar, Matthew Seminoff, Montana Onyebuchi, and Quinn Schmiemann as the first wave of award winners.

Pillar earned the nod as Most Improved Player, having a breakout season during his 18-year-old campaign. The Warman, Sask. native was the team’s leading scorer in the B.C. Division hub, scoring 11 goals and adding 18 assists in 29 games. He’ll be leaned on for another good season when the Western Hockey League (WHL) returns to a full schedule starting Oct. 2.

The Diamond in the Rough went to Seminoff, who was a huge contributor to a second straight B.C. Division title, definitely future captain material. The Coquitlam native had 11 goals and five assists in 22 games for the Blazers.

The Best Defenseman was a shared award between graduating defenseman Onyebuchi as well as Schmiemann, who had 17 points during the shortened season. Onyebuchi, who’s now in the San Jose Sharks organization, had 12 points.

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The Blazers will be revealing all 15 year-end award winners from the shortened 2021 WHL season throughout the week.