National Awards
By Fetch
Player of the year – Austin Smith, Colgate
Smith had 36 goals this year to lead the nation, and they were just 5 fewer than the other two Hobey hat trick finalists combined. Smith scored 25 goals in conference play, 12 more than the next highest total. To contrast, the other leading scorers won their league scoring titles by 5, 3, 2 and 1. Smith also had under 20% of his goals come on the power play and, though I am not a fan of crediting players for context, had an equal number of game winning and game tying goals as he did power play tallies. Smith helped drag a Colgate team picked to finish near the bottom in ECAC Hockey to a fourth place finish in the league, and to top it all off Smith was one of the better forwards in the country at playing in his own end as well.
Coach of the year – Norm Bazin, UMass-Lowell
Bob Daniels was very close, as he helped lead Ferris State all the way to the title game in their first Frozen Four appearance. But Bazin led Lowell to 24 wins and a second place finish in Hockey East after a last place finish and just 5 wins last season. Lowell had seven players who scored 10 or more goals in 2011-12 after having four the year before.
Rookie of the Year – Joey LaLeggia, Denver
I went back and forth between he and Gaudreau for rookie of the year before LaLeggia, who was 6th among rookies in ppg despite playing defense. LaLeggia scored a point per game in WCHA play, joining the following defensemen since 2005-06.
Justin Schultz
Brendan Smith
Jamie McBain
Matt Carle
That’s three Hobey candidates and a Hobey winner. LaLeggia is the only Freshman defenseman to do it in that time frame, and one of only a handful of Freshmen, forward or defenseman, to do it in that timeframe. What’s more is that LaLeggia hasn’t been drafted. Some team is going to get a major steal this summer.
All-Americans are after the jump:First Team
F – Austin Smith, Colgate
F – Jack Connolly, Minnesota-Duluth
F – Reilly Smith, Miami
D – Justin Schultz, Wisconsin
D – Torey Krug, Michigan State
G – Tony Grosenick, Union
Second Team
F – Spencer Abbott, Maine
F – Jaden Schwartz, Colorado College
F – Jeremy Welsh, Union
D – Brian Dumoulin, Boston College
D – Danny Biega, Harvard
G – Parker Milner, Boston College
Third Team
F – Brock Nelson, North Dakota
F – Nick Bjugstad, Minnesota
F – Joey Diamond, Maine
D – Dan DeKeyser, Western Michigan
D – Tim Kirby, Air Force
G – Shawn Hunwick, Michigan
All Rookie Team
F – Johnny Gaudreau, Boston College
F – Scott Wilson, UMass-Lowell
F – Kyle Rau, Minnesota
D – Joey LaLeggia, Denver
D – Patrick McNally, Harvard
G – Juho Olkinuora, Denver