For the last three seasons, Ryan Terefenko has been a constant in the Denver Outlaws lineup. From the moment he stepped foot on the field as a rookie through his first season as a team captain this year, Terefenko’s been a driving force for the franchise.

This season, he was nominated for the George Boiardi Hard Hat Award for the third time in his four-year career. The award recognizes the best short-stick defensive midfielder in the PLL, and this is the year that honor should go to Terefenko.

He’s consistently one of the best at the position, and he’s turned in an excellent campaign this year. 

Terefenko is a true two-way midfielder who’s always on the field for the Outlaws. This season, he took his offensive production to new heights, setting a career high with eight points (5G, 1T, 2A). 

His ability is what opens up transition for Denver. He’s a savvy player who knows how to occupy spaces on the break. When running with Jake Piseno or another transition-minded defender, this can create a dangerous fast break.

But he's also super savvy off the ball and always makes himself an option pic.twitter.com/soJ5XlAd7G

— Topher Adams (@Topher_Adams) August 28, 2024

Terefenko is also one of the best in the league at leading transition. He’s a beast on the clear and explodes across midfield with the ball in his stick. This season, he’s been a dangerous passer in these moments.

In one example from late in the season, instead of charging ahead to the goal or firing a long-range shot, Terefenko aggressively passed to the crease for a quick transition chance.

Ryan Terefenko is a beast in transition. He's explosive crossing midfield, and his head is always up looking for an option pic.twitter.com/BupWFyHaoi

— Topher Adams (@Topher_Adams) August 28, 2024

As the season progressed, these transition moments became more frequent and more consistent for Denver. Whether off of faceoff wings or going from defense to offense, Terefenko is one of the very best transition players in the league.

More than anything, though, Terefenko is a defensive anchor.

Like all great SSDMs, he’s a strong defender against the dodge. He rarely gets beat individually, and the defense knows it can rely on him to do his job and win a matchup. 

What makes Terefenko unique, however, is how he excels off the ball. So often the narrative around short sticks is their ability to cover on ball, but off-ball defense is vital to defensive structure.

One of Denver’s biggest defensive deficiencies is off-ball defense from short sticks, but that is definitely not the case for Terefenko.

When he’s guarding a matchup off the ball, he communicates like an elite long pole. He works through picks and supports matchups when he needs to. Not only is Terefenko another great cover guy, but he also adds another strong leader to help the overall team defense.

We always focus on on-ball defense with short-stick defensive midfielders, but Terefenko is also so, so good off the ball.

This is an elite defensive possession from the @DenverOutlaws, especially Terefenko up top. pic.twitter.com/qmXqwbyMWd

— Topher Adams (@Topher_Adams) August 28, 2024

Terefenko’s career resume is not the reason he should win the Hard Hat Award, for which New York's Danny Logan and Carolina's Zach Geddes also were nominated. It’s everything he’s done for the Outlaws since Opening Weekend. Denver would not have quintupled its win total from last year without Terefenko doing all the little things between the lines.

Few short sticks are as good at what they do or as important to their team. For the third time in four years, Terefenko is recognized as one of the very best in the league.

After the season that Terefenko just had, maybe this is the year he deserves the honor.