Breaking down the HEWBA and Boston Hockey Blog Hockey East awards

All-Hockey East Second Team
Joseph Pendenza – Pat Mullane – Evan Rodrigues
Sean Escobedo – Eric Knodel
Casey DeSmith

All-Hockey East Rookie Team
Kevin Roy – Danny O’Regan – Devin Shore
Mike Matheson – Matt Grzelcyk
Jon Gillies

Picking Johnny Gaudreau over Jon Gillies was a tough choice for me, but in the end Gaudreau was just the most impressive overall player in the league this season. He led the conference with 36 points in 27 Hockey East games while tying for the league lead in game-winning goals (five). It is tough to compare goalie statistics with player statistics, but Gillies was only third in Hockey East in goals-against average (2.17) and save percentage (.929) during Hockey East play.

Mike Matheson earned the spot on the First Team because of his play in his own defensive end as well as his offensive ability. The freshman was tied for second in the league in points by a defenseman with 17, but his plus-18 plus-minus rating bumped him up to the First Team. Sean Escobedo earned a spot on the Second Team thanks to his performance in his own zone this season. Escobedo led the league in blocked shots (76) and was relied upon heavily whenever his team had to preserve a lead.

It was tough to leave Kevin Goumas off of my Second Team, but Joseph Pendenza and Evan Rodrigues were simply better in Hockey East play. Pendenza scored two more goals than Goumas while playing on a team that played all four forward lines consistently, while Rodrigues scored four more goals and had a league-best plus-16 rating.

Some honorable mentions include Goumas, Chad Ruhwedel, Matt Nieto, Jordan Heywood, and Connor Hellebuyck.

Tim’s picks

Player of the Year: Jon Gillies
Coach of the Year: Nate Leaman
Rookie of the Year: Jon Gillies

All-Hockey East First Team
Johnny Gaudreau – Kevin Goumas – Mike Collins
Trevor van Riemsdyk – Mike Matheson
Jon Gillies

All-Hockey East Second Team
Matt Nieto – Pat Mullane – Steven Whitney
Sean Escobedo – Chad Ruhwedel
Casey DeSmith

All-Hockey East Rookie Team
Kevin Roy – Danny O’Regan – Devin Shore
Matt Grzelcyk – Mike Matheson
Jon Gillies

For my picks, I used players’ performance throughout the season — not just Hockey East play. There were surely plenty of strong choices, and none of mine are outlandish, but here I’ll elaborate on a few.

My picks of Jon Gillies for player of the year and Nate Leaman for coach of the year were simple: They lifted Providence to within a win of the Hockey East regular-season title in a season when the Friars weren’t supposed to have a chance. Gaudreau, the other obvious choice for player of the year, was far from alone in helping BC to the No. 2 seed. It’s similar for Norm Bazin. Don’t get me wrong – he has done a spectacular job turning Lowell around in just two seasons – but it was much less of a surprise after they tied for second in 2011-12.

My Second Team has what could be a couple surprise choices in Matt Nieto and Casey DeSmith. Nieto, though, put BU on his back down the stretch is it clinched home ice in the quarterfinals. His seven-game point streak (which included two playoff games, granted) featured nine goals and four assists to launch him to tied for seventh in the conference in scoring. For DeSmith, it was mostly a matter of a lack of other choices. Many voted for UMass-Lowell’s Connor Hellebuyck, but he started just half of the River Hawks’ 36 games. 

Player of the Year: Johnny Gaudreau
Coach of the Year: Norm Bazin
Rookie of the Year: Jon Gillies

All-Hockey East First Team
Steven Whitney – Johnny Gaudreau – Kevin Goumas
Trevor van Riemsdyk – Jordan Heywood
Jon Gillies

All-Hockey East Second Team
Pat Mullane – Danny O’Regan – Kevin Roy
Michael Matheson – Sean Escobedo
Connor Hellebuyck

All-Hockey East Rookie Team
Kevin Roy – Danny O’Regan – Devin Shore
Michael Matheson – Matt Grzelcyk
Jon Gillies

Although I eventually went with Gaudreau for Player of the Year, my decision essentially came down to a coin toss between him and Gillies. While Nate Leaman has surely led the Friars well, I attribute their playoff run, and their success all year, much more to Gillies’ play, so Norm Bazin was an easy Coach of the Year choice for me. 

I left Mike Collins off my first team, where many others had him, mainly because of the way he tailed off at the end of the year as Merrimack fell out of the race for home ice. He had just two points over the regular season’s last seven games. (I also made my decisions based on overall stats, not just conference.)

I like Kevin’s choice of Rodrigues on the second team, but I couldn’t quite pick him over O’Regan or Roy in the end. O’Regan has been arguably BU’s most consistent forward this year. He led the Terriers in scoring with 34 points in the regular season and hasn’t gone more than two games without a point all year – all as a freshman who didn’t turn 19 until Jan. 30.

And Roy deserves recognition as by far the best player on a last-place team. His 1.17 points per game  is the third best in the conference, despite him being part of the eighth-best offense. With a better supporting cast, he might well have been able to put up the kind of numbers that would have earned him my ROY vote over Gillies.