Time Magazine's criteria for their Person of the Year is defined as, "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year."

Well, it's pretty obvious Gritty the Philadelphia Flyers mascot checks every box, which is why he nominated himself for the distinction.

Tweet from @GrittyNHL: pic.twitter.com/19JE2hO7qy

Sure, it could be some important political figure or a great contributor to the greater society, but do any of them have a squeaky belly button or shoot smoke out of their heads?

When it comes to groundbreakers in 2018, there's only one who made a grand entrance swinging from a giant wrecking ball, and that should count for something.

Gritty was unleashed onto the world less than two months ago, and let's be honest, the world wasn't ready.

Video: NYR@PHI: Gritty continues to impress in first week

But after scaring the living daylights out of lots of people in the early going, Gritty endeared himself to the masses when he took a few tumbles in his on-ice debut and got right back up again.

He did the talk show circuit and became hugely famous in his first week on the scene, but has remained a local hero in Philadelphia. Yeah, he's furry and cuddly, but Gritty doesn't take no guff, not even from a little kid.

There have been Gritty tattoos, Gritty babies, Gritty everywhere you could think to put his googly eyes.

So while the choice might be obvious to most of us, a little self-promotion doesn't hurt.