Jack Connolly: NCAA Superstar

At just 22 years of age, Jack Connolly already has an impressive number of awards under his belt, particularly at the college level. Now, after playing college hockey at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, he’s headed to Sweden to play for Färjestad BK in Elitserien.Connolly (find him on Twitter here) majored in communications and just completed his senior year at UMD and a very successful college hockey career. Just to list a few of his accomplishments:

– He’s nominated for a 2012 ESPY award in the ‘Best Male Collegiate Athlete’ category. As the sole hockey nominee, he’s up against baseball players Anthony Davis (University of Kentucky) and Mike Zunino (University of Florida) as well as footballers Robert Griffin III (Baylor University) and Andrew Luck (Stanford University.) The winner will be announced July 11.

– Connolly was recently named USA Hockey’s 2011-12 College Hockey Player of the Year, the first from UMD to win the award since 1994.

– He also received three awards from the UMD Bulldogs: Most Valuable Player, Most Inspirational Player and the Bulldog Community Service Award, named University of Minnesota Duluth’s Outstanding Male Senior Athlete, and won the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award.

Of course, no one can forget that he also won the 2012 Hobey Baker Award, the highest award a college hockey player can receive. Add on to that honor that he captained the Bulldogs this past season, had a career-high 6o points and was a three-time All-Academic Team pick. As a junior, he helped the university to its first ever NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship, and this season, he ranked second nationwide in scoring. Oh, and throughout his college career, he never missed a game.

Is it safe to say that, well, this kid is good? This season, he had 20 goals and 40 assists in 41 games, and had nearly the same statistical results the previous years as well.

As a free agent, he recently signed on to take his talents overseas and join Färjestad BK for the 2012-13 season. He’ll be the sole American player on the team (as the roster stands at this time), but it will certainly be interesting to see how his skills translate over the to the international stage.