Mavericks' Sebastien Thinel Named CHL Most Valuable Player

The Central Hockey League (CHL) announced Monday Missouri Mavericks’ forward Sebastien Thinel has been named the 2012-13 CHL Most Valuable Player and he has been awarded the Joe Burton Scoring Championship.

The MVP honor is ‘presented annually to the Central Hockey League player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team’ and is determined through balloting of CHL coaches, communications staff members and selected media members in each market.  The Joe Burton award is given annually to the league’s leading scorer and is presented in honor of Joe Burton, the CHL’s career leader with 985 points accumulated over 11 seasons with the Oklahoma City Blazers and the first person inducted into the CHL Hall of Fame.

“It’s an honor to win this award,” said Thinel.  “I want to thank my teammates who made this possible and I am glad I was consistent enough throughout the season to win this award.  I am happy for our fans, but it will be even better if we can bring home the cup.”

Thinel becomes the fourth player to win the league MVP award twice (2009 with Odessa) joining Joe Burton, Don Parsons and Jeff Bes and he is the only player to win the scoring championship three times (also won in 2009 and 2011 while with Odessa).

“Sebastien has an incredible ability to make players around him become more dangerous players,” added Mavericks’ Head Coach Scott Hillman.  “I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this great honor.  He is a true professional and wants nothing more than to help his teammates and his organization succeed.”

Thinel finished the season with 96 points on 29 goals and 67 assists and he was one of two Mavericks to play in all 66 games.  The forward finished tied for second with a +28 plus/minus rating.  His 96 points were 10 more than the player who finished second place, Bloomington’s Jon Booras with 86 points.

The St. Jerome, Quebec native won the MVP award after earning exactly half of the votes on the returned ballots (22 of 44).  Quad City’s Mickey Lang finishes second in the voting earning 16 votes.  The other finalists for the MVP award were Bloomington’s Booras, Allen’s Aaron Dell and Denver’s A.J. Gale.