Miami Ohio University Athletics
Nomination Process for 2006 Hobey Baker Award Gets Underway
12/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Hockey
Dec. 14, 2005
As falling leaves have officially given way to falling snow, dozens of college hockey players are finding their stock rising in this, the 26th season of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award.
College hockey journalists, coaches and scouts have identified some of their favorites from the first two months of the season. Now, with the Nominating Phase of Vote for Hobey underway at hobeybaker.com, college hockey fans will have a chance to have their say on the who deserves consideration for the sport's most prestigious individual honor.
Meanwhile, we'll look at who some of the pundits have identified as candidates.
Colorado College's Marty Sertich returned for his senior season after claiming the 2005 Hobey Baker Award.
Obviously, any preseason or early-season list begins with the contenders for last season's Hobey Baker Award. Five of last year's 10 finalists are back in 2005-06, including all three members of the Hobey Hat Trick: Colorado College's Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling and Cornell's David McKee.
Also back are finalists Reid Cashman of Quinnipiac and T.J. Hensick of Michigan, a couple of point producers whose games have picked up right where they left off last spring.
Other candidates had already joined that group, even before the season began. Writers and editors from InsideCollegeHockey.com had identified 10 candidates in a preseason feature.
A couple of members of the defending national champion Denver Pioneers earned acclaim, as Matt Carle and Gabe Gauthier were mentioned, and certainly others - such as Paul Stastny and Ryan Dingle - could earn consideration.
Others who saw success in last year's NCAAs have garnered mention as well. North Dakota, which joined Denver in the finals, has no shortage of candidates, from goaltender Jordan Parise to forwards Drew Stafford and Travis Zajac.
Minnesota, another Frozen Four participant, has Ryan Potulny and Alex Goligoski. And while the fourth Frozen Four team, Colorado College, is led by the aforementioned Sertich and Sterling, defenseman Brian Salcido has enjoyed a fast start for the Tigers as well.
The WCHA teams that didn't reach last season's Frozen Four have their candidates as well, led by the nation's No. 1 team, Wisconsin. Brian Elliott, Joe Pavelski, Tom Gilbert and Robbie Earl have all earned mention among the early Hobey candidates for their play thus far. Other stars in the WCHA include David Backes (Minnesota State) and Chris Conner (Michigan Tech).
Moving back East, the ECAC Hockey League is home to more talent than just Cashman and McKee. Cornell's Matt Moulson, Colgate's Jon Smyth, Dartmouth's Mike Ouellette, Rensselaer's Kevin Croxton and St. Lawrence's T.J. Trevelyan are all senior forwards with the talent and experience to take a run at the Hobey.
In Hockey East, New Hampshire's first line of Brett Hemingway, Jacob Micflikier and Daniel Winnik has racked up points and praise early on. Others with early beads on Hobey candidacies could include Torrey Mitchell, Brady Leisenring and Joe Fallon at Vermont, Boston College's Chris Collins, Boston University's John Curry, or the leader of the surprising revival at Providence, Torry Gajda.
Moving to the Midwest, Hensick is the tip of a talented iceberg in the CCHA. Bowling Green's Alex Foster was the conference's player of the month in November, while his teammate Jonathan Matsumoto has impressed as well. Nebraska-Omaha has two stars in Scott Parse and Bill Thomas, and a couple seniors on the western side of Michigan are also finding success - Ferris State's Greg Rallo and Western Michigan's Brent Walton. Miami's Andy Greene, the leader of the conference's most surprising team to this point, has earned accolades as well.
In the CHA, every team has a couple of potential stars, from goal scorers like Ted Cook (Niagara), Eric Ehn (Air Force) and Luke Erickson (Bemidji State) to top-notch goaltenders like Scott Munroe (Alabama-Huntsville).
Atlantic Hockey, which produced Cashman as a finalist a year ago, has a few who could follow in his footsteps. Tops on the early list would be Mercyhurst's Scott Champagne, owner of a point-scoring streak that stretches back to last season. Pierre-Luc O'Brien (Sacred Heart) and Pierre Napert-Frenette share first names and fast starts.
Looking back on INCH's preseason list we find Phil Kessel, the heralded freshman at Minnesota who scouts consider the odds-on favorite to be the No. 1 pick in next summer's NHL draft. Could Kessel join Paul Kariya as freshmen to win the Hobey? He's not alone among rookie candidates. Newcomers like Michigan's Jack Johnson and Andrew Cogliano, North Dakota's T.J. Oshie and Ryan Duncan, Miami's Jeff Zatkoff and Sacred Heart's Bear Trapp have all been quick to grab the attention of the college hockey world.
With just two months under our belt, there is no shortage of candidates for the 2006 Hobey Baker Memorial Award. Now that Vote for Hobey is underway, you can have your say in who deserves college hockey's most prestigious individual honor.
