On Tuesday, the Lou Marsh Trophy – an award given to Canada’s top athlete – will be handed out for the 72nd time and, as can be typical in non-Olympic years, there doesn’t appear to be a runaway favourite.

But that’s okay.

Almost without exception, the award is a contentious one. Was the winner a worthy one? Was somebody more deserving snubbed? This is especially true in non-Olympic years and 2015 looks to be no different.

Last year, bobsledder Kaillie Humphries took the honour, so who is up for this year’s award?

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Carey PriceThe 28-year-old Montreal Canadiens netminder became just the seventh goaltender and first in 13 seasons to capture the Hart Trophy, given to the National Hockey League player most valuable to his team. Price set the Habs’ record for wins in a season with 44 and his .933 save percentage and goals against average of 1.96 were good enough to also claim the Vezina Trophy. Price’s season was a fine one to be sure, but it was split over two calendar years (2014/15). On top of that, voters have often shied away from rewarding hockey players in recent history. Though the award has gone to a hockey player 12 times, more than it’s gone to any other athlete, a hockey player has only won the award three times in the past 25 years (Mario Lemieux in 1993 and Sidney Crosby in 2007 and 2009).

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Brooke Henderson - Having just turned 18 in September, 2015 was a whirlwind for the Smiths Falls, Ontario native. Henderson became just the third golfer under the age of 18 to win an LPGA event, when she won the Cambia Portland Classic by eight strokes in August. Her win was the first by a Canadian on the tour since Lorie Kane in 2001. With a trip to the Rio Summer Olympics on the horizon next August, 2016 could be even bigger for Henderson.

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Andre de Grasse - The Scarborough, Ontario native established himself as Canada’s best sprinter in a generation in 2015 with a pair of gold medals at the Pan Am Games in both the 100 and 200-metre events. At the Toronto games, de Grasse became the first sprinter in Canadian history to post a sub-10-second time in the 100 and a sub-20-second time in the 200. De Grasse also claimed a pair of medals at the World Championships (bronzes in the 100-metre and in the 4 x 100-metre relay), becoming the first Canadian to reach the podium in the 100-metre at the event since Bruny Surin since 1999. 

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Russell Martin - The Toronto Blue Jays catcher returned to his hometown in 2015 and was instrumental to his team’s first American League East title and return to the postseason since 1993. The 32-year-old set a career high with 23 home runs, knocked in 77 runs, threw out 44 per cent of runners (tops in the AL) and was named an All-Star for the fourth time in his career. Still, only three baseball players have captured the award before and Martin wasn’t the most influential player on his team, let alone the league.

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Kadeisha Buchanan - Only 20, Buchanan has already established herself as the rock of the CWNT’s back line and one of the finest central defenders in women’s soccer. At this past summer’s World Cup, Buchanan captured the Young Player Award and was the sole Canadian in the tournament’s All-Star squad. Capped 41 times by Canada at the senior level, the Toronto native was shortlisted for the MAC Hermann Trophy, given to the NCAA women’s soccer player of the year, after starring in her junior year at West Virginia. Buchanan’s CWNT teammate, Christine Sinclair, is the only soccer player, man or woman, to have won the Lou Marsh Trophy (2012).

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Andrew Wiggins - The swingman out of Kansas was everything advertised for the Minnesota Timberwolves, becoming the first Canadian to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award with 16.9 points a night, 4.6 boards and a .437 field-goal percentage. Taken with the top pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, the 20-year-old spearheaded Canada’s bronze medal-winning effort at the FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico, averaging 15.1 points a game. Wiggins faces a similar predicament to Price in that his season is also split over two years, but his 20.6 PPG thus far in 2015-16 could help his case.​ 

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