2015 Chatham-Kent Male Athlete of the Year: Travis Konecny

After more than two weeks of voting, the Chatham-Kent Sports Network readers have selected Clachan’s Travis Konecny as the 2015 Chatham-Kent Male Athlete of the Year.

Konecny excelled throughout 2015, captaining the OHL’s Ottawa 67s, representing Canada, and hearing his named called at the NHL Draft.

With Ottawa, Konecny closed the 2014-2015 season with 29 goals and 68 points in 60 games, before adding 10 points in 5 playoff games.

The former Chatham-Kent Cyclones forward followed up that performance with 45 points in the first 29 games of the 2015-2016 season.

In June of 2015, Konecny had a career highlight, being selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft, 24th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers. Konecny was also awarded the first ever E.J. McGuire Award of Excellence, presented to the draft eligible player who best exemplifies the commitment to excellence through strength of character, competitiveness, and athleticism.

Also in the offseason, Travis Konecny captained Canada’s U18 team to a gold medal at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup in Bratislava, Slovakia, scoring 5 goals in 5 games.

To close out 2015, Konecny was selected as a member of Canada’s National Junior Team, set to compete in Helsinki, Finland in the World Junior Hockey Championships.

With more than 2500 votes cast, Konecny took 33% of the vote.

The runner-up for Chatham-Kent’s Male Athlete of the Year is Luke Van Rycheghem. Van Rycheghem, a baseball player from Kent Bridge, also suited up for Canada, cracking Canada’s National Junior Baseball team. The catcher, who plays club for the Ontario Blue Jays, committed to the NCAA’s Stetson University, and is considered a top prospect for the 2016 MLB Draft. Luke Van Rycheghem’s supporters made the 2015 Athlete of the Year vote close, as the athlete took 27% of the vote.

Congratulations to all of the nominees, including runner up Luke Van Rycheghem, Final Four nominees Trent Fox and Nick Wammes, and CKSN’s 2015 Chatham-Kent Male Athlete of the Year, Travis Konecny.