End-of-season Hockey East Awards

On Wednesday, Hockey East announced some of its season-end awards but will announce its major awards at the year-end banquet on Thursday night. We here at The Boston Hockey Blog pooled our picks for these major awards ahead of Hockey East’s announcement at the banquet. Our picks will follow below along with our explanations for the winners in each category.

Player of the Year: Spencer Abbott (Maine)
Abbott is the conference’s leading scorer, with 38 points in 27 games, and he spent most of the year setting up his linemate, Joey Diamond, who leads Hockey East in goals with 20. Abbott ranks in the top five in Hockey East in points, goals, assists, shots, plus-minus and power-play points, and he is a significant reason the Black Bears’ power play is firing at a 25.6 percent rate – second in the conference, just a tenth of a percentage point behind BU.

Coach of the Year: Norm Bazin (UML)
The turnaround Bazin led this season is incredible. The Riverhawks more than quadrupled their win total from last season in both overall and Hockey East play. Certainly, Bazin inherited a lineup from last season that had some talent, but under his leadership, players who were unable to come together to help the team win last year fought together to become a team who, despite being eliminated from the Hockey East tournament in the quarterfinals round, will earn a berth in the national tournament.

Rookie of the Year: Scott Wilson (UML)
Scott Wilson was not only the best freshman in the conference this season, he was the best forward on his team, leading the Riverhawks with 28 points. Wilson’s biggest competition for Rookie of the Year is forward Johnny Gaudreau from Boston College, who scored six less points than him while playing one more game. Wilson was a plus-10 this year, showing that he is not just a point-producer but can hold his own on the defensive end. This is likely just the beginning for Wilson, who has shown he can be one of the top players in the league for the next few years.

First Team All-Hockey East:
Spencer Abbott (Maine), Joey Diamond (Maine), Brian Flynn (Maine), Brian Dumoulin (BC), Garrett Noonan (BU), Doug Carr (UML)
Abbott, Diamond and Flynn are easily the most dangerous line in Hockey East, and they may even be one of the best lines in college hockey this season. It’s hard to demote any of those three to Second Team honors. Dumoulin leads defensemen in league scoring and put together a plus-13 in league play, proving himself as a solid player at both ends of the ice. Noonan has put together an impressive season for a defenseman, notching 11 goals in league play and ranking fifth among all skaters with six power-play goals. The sophomore also rates in as a plus-11 in league play, the best of any defenseman on his team. Carr ranks in the top 5 in goals against, save percentage and win percentage while being a key cog in Lowell’s turnaround this season.

Second Team All-Hockey East:
Chris Kreider (BC), Chris Connolly (BU), Matt Nieto (BU), Karl Stollery (Merrimack), Chad Ruhwedel (UML), Parker Milner (BC)
Kreider’s 28 points (14 goals and 14 assists) lead the Eagles, and he also leads the conference in shorthanded points with four. Connolly proved himself a valuable asset to the Terriers, moving over to center when BU lost its top two pivots over winter break and excelling in the position. Despite not scoring a goal until January, Connolly finished the year with 32 points and a conference-leading 26 assists. Nieto was the leading non-Maine scorer in conference play with 10 goals and 22 assists. He became a key member in the Boston University offense by averaging over a point per game. Ruhwedel’s 11 power-play points made him the only defenseman to rank in the top ten in Hockey East in that category. He stepped up this season, like many of the other Riverhawks, to help UML finish second in the conference. Although Milner hit a rough patch this season in December and January, he was able to refocus and stand tall in net through a stretch that saw BC finish 11-0 once he returned between the pipes at the end of January. Milner finished first in league win percentage (.842) and goals against (1.85) and was second in save percentage (.928).