Hobey Baker Top 10 Prediction

The Hobey Baker top 10 is set to be released tonight at 5:00, so I thought I would take a stab at who I feel will be making the cut.  I will willingly admit I have a WCHA bias (as I don’t get to see many of the other teams play) and it will be apparent that I have a forward bias as well.  There just isn’t a good stat to measure defensemen and I don’t see a defenseman this year that has put up the jaw-dropping numbers to push them into the mix.  These are in no particular order.

Ryan Walters (University of Nebraska – Omaha)

Walters leads the nation in points with 52.  The fact that Omaha wasn’t able to extend their season into the Final 5 will probably prevent him from making the Hobey Hattrick in such a wide-open race, but it’s tough to leave the nation’s point leader out of the top 10. 

Danny Kristo (University of North Dakota): 
Kristo has been so good in every situation this year.  He’s great at even strength, pesky on the penalty kill, and he’s what makes the North Dakota power play run.  He also has a reputation for scoring big goals.  He has 24 goals on the season and is playing on a team that is poised to make another playoff run.  I doubt Kristo will make the Hobey Hattrick because of his off-ice incidents, but his on-ice play makes it nearly impossible to be left out of the top 10.

Corban Knight (University of North Dakota): 

Kristo’s linemate on the top line at UND will surely make a push at the top 10 and maybe even the Hobey Hattrick.  He has 48 points (7^th in the nation), the highest face-off percentage in the nation, and is one of the most reliable 2-way players in the game.  He also is a great student and a character guy.  While I predicted Kristo to be higher than Knight in the WCHA awards, I believe if a UND forward advances to the Hobey Hattrick, it will be Knight.

Drew Leblanc (St. Cloud):
To start the year, I had St. Cloud’s Ben Hanowski in my preseason Hobey picks but Leblanc has asserted himself as the clear favorite.  He was named the WCHA Player of the year and WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year- the first time in history that the same player has brought home both awards.  Above all, he led his St. Cloud State Huskies to the McNaughton Cup with his 50 points this season.  I have to think he’s a Top 10 lock and could make a run at the Hobey Hattrick.

Johnny Gaudreau (Boston College):

At the midway point of the season, I thought Johnny Hockey (as the Eagle faithful affectionately calls him) would run away with this award.  His production did slow down enough to let some others in the race, but I still think this award is his to lose.  He’s an electrifying player that led the nation in points per game.  If the Eagles are able to make a good post-season run, which they usually do under Jerry York’s tenure, Gaudreau will be in the Hobey Hattrick.

Eric Hartzell (Quinnipiac):

My only non-forward that made this list.  Hobey loves goals, but it’s tough to leave a guy like Hartzell off this list.  For those of you that haven’t looked at the polls lately, Quinnipiac had been number one in the nation until this week when they dropped to number 2.  Hartzell is a huge reason for this.  He has a .935 Save Percentage, a 1.4978 GAA, and has played 36 games.  The fact that the Bobcats are number 1 in the pairwise is going to draw attention and Hartzell looks to be the candidate that reaps the benefits of it.

Eric Haula (University of Minnesota):

With the Gophers being in and out of the national number 1 spot, I have a hard time believing they won’t have a Top 10 finalist.  As much as I love Nate Schmidt, I don’t think he’ll be in because defensemen rarely make it unless they have numbers that you simply can’t ignore.  Bjugstad didn’t have the year he was expected to and Rau hasn’t done as much as Haula.  Haula is tied for 5^th in the nation in points with 49 and and was named to the All-WCHA 2^nd team.  I don’t think his season warrants a Hobey Hattrick spot, but I do think he will crack the top 10.

Steven Whitney (Boston College):

Whitney is not as flashy (or as flashy of a name) as his linemate Johnny Hockey.  He does, however, have the points and the resume to warrant a top 10 pick.  He has 43 points with an impressive 25 goals.  He also just received the Walter Brown award given to the best American born hockey player in New England. 

Greg Carey (St. Lawrence):

Carey’s chance at the Hobey Hattrick may have ended with his team’s season last week at the hands of Yale.  However, the kid had a nation leading 28 goals this season.  Even with the season ending earlier than some of the other finalists, I don’t see him being left off the top 10 list.

Kevin Goumas (University of New Hampshire):

I may be going off the chart a little on this pick, but New Hampshire’s strong season and strong likelihood of making the national tournament are tough to ignore. Goumas is a huge reason for their success.  He only had 10 goals this season, but had an impressive 32 assists.  I could see another goalie (Hjelle or Gillies) or a defenseman sneak into the mix, but I’m going with Goumas to round out the top 10 picks.

WCHA Post-Season Awards

Well for the first time in our blog's young life, we had the honor to fill out a ballot for WCHA post-season awards (huge shout-out to Tradition of Excellence for inviting us to take part).  If you guys haven't checked out his blog and are Sioux fans, I strongly advise you to do so.  I've always respected the bloggers and beat writers that post their ballots online, so I've decided to follow suit. 

1st Team:

F - Ryan Walters - Omaha

F - Danny Kristo - UND

F - Drew LeBlanc - St. Cloud

D - Nate Schmidt - Minnesota

D - Nick Jensen - St. Cloud

G - Stephon Williams

2nd Team:

F - Corban Knight - UND

F - Eric Haula - Minnesota

F - Josh Archibald - Omaha

D - Mike Boivin - CC

D - Joey Laleggia - Denver

G - Juho Olkinoura - Denver

3rd Team:

F - Rylan Schwartz - CC

F - Matt Leitner - Mankato

F - Eriah Hayes - Mankato

D - Jake McCabe - Wisconsin

D - Dillon Simpson - UND

G - Adam Wilcox - Minnesota

All-Rookie Team:

F - Tony Cameranesi - Duluth

F - Rocco Grimaldi - UND

F - Alex Petan - Michigan Tech

D - Andy Welinski - Duluth

D - Nolan Zajac - Denver

G - Stephon Williams - Mankato

Player of the Year - Ryan Walters

Defensive Player of the Year - Nate Schmidt

Rookie of the Year - Tony Cameranesi

Coach of the Year - Mike Hastings

Goalie of the year - Stephon Williams

Well I couldn't have picked a more difficult year to fill out my first ballot.  There were so many players that could be on this list. The all-rookie and rookie of the year might have been the toughest.  Both Brodzinski (St. Cloud) and Farley (Duluth) could have been in this group and any of those players could have won ROY.  Ultimately, I had to give the edge to Cameranesi as he had to jump right into a first line center role and did it remarkably well.  My apologies to Nick Bjugstad.  As one of my pre-season Hobey Baker picks, he was the hardest to leave off.  However, I couldn't put him in front of the nine forwards I chose.  Finally, my one homer pick goes to Dillon Simpson.  He might not get as much of the praise, but he is playing on the top pairing on the 3rd place team in the league and has put up a career high 21 points.  Andrew Prochno or Andrej Sustr made that decision very difficult.