The highs and lows of the 2017 season were marked at the Proski Newcastle Northstars' annual presentation on Wednesday night.

Fans, sponsors, friends and family joined volunteers, players, coaches and management of the Northstars at Club Macquarie for the presentation.

Northstars captain Bert Malloy said a few words before the player awards were handed out.

He spoke about the season which was riddled with injuries, losses and other set backs.

"There was no give up, which you saw [last] weekend - just a whole lot of heart," Malloy said.

"Everyone really bought in. I'm really proud of our boys. We had adversity from the get go and we just pushed through. 

"The fans as well, the past weekend... we didn't really have anything to play for but you guys were awesome. We just think about that second period against Melbourne [Ice]. It was electric. 

"We're looking forward to next year and playing the Northstars brand of hockey."

The presentation was tinged with sadness, following the loss last week of Tony Huntley - one of the Northstars' first and most passionate supporters.

Tony was well known for his love of a chat on his favourite subjects - the Northstars AIHL team, especially the junior local players, military history (being a veteran of the ADF) and technology.

It was Tony's request that there be a specific award to recognise the best grassroots player of the season. He established the Best Australian Player Award, which following his passing, has been renamed as the Tony Huntley Memorial Award.

On Wednesday night, Northstars general manager Garry Dore presented the award, along with Tony's wife, Jane, to the winner - Mat Lindsay.

It is the third consecutive year Lindsay has won the award.

"I always appreciated skating across [the ice] knowing he [Tony] would let me know if I did have a good game or not, and let me know what I had to do to win things like this [award] and always took that in stride," Lindsay said.

"I'm really going to miss that going forward. I'm sure all of us here is going to miss him too."

Goaltender Charlie Smart won the Most Dedicated Player Award while Liam Manwarring took home the Most Improved Player Award.

Northstars coach Andrew Petrie gave honourable mention to Jonatan Ruth and Hayden Sheard, who were in the running for those awards.

Petrie said it was hard to choose the winner of the Best Defensive Player Award, which went to Malloy, as he could have claimed many of the trophies.

The hardest award to choose a winner of, Petrie said, was the Coaches' Award, which went to Dave Ferrari.

Import Joe Harcharik took out most valuable player (MVP).

"It's been a really enjoyable year for me, coming down here in my first year as a Northstar," Harcharik said.

"It will be an experience I'll never forget."