Hobey Baker: From Past to Present

It's about that time of year again to start really looking into potential Hobey Baker award candidates.

Many players are performing well on a consistent basis that are demanding to be noticed, and this award does a good job at that.  But do keep in mind the Hobey Baker award is not just given to the player that scores the most goals or earns the most points.  Obviously those are taken into consideration but also attributes like composure on and off the ice, leadership skills and the ability to motivate one's team to perform at it's highest level, and an overall successful academic standing.

Michael Mersch - Wisconsin

Photo: WCHA.com

Based on the criteria as well as the top fan-voted players, this is the list I came up with:

Player	Pos	Yr.	Team	Votes	GP	G	A	Pts.	Pts/G	PP	GWG	(+/-)	P. Mins.
Ryan Walters	F	Jr.	Nebraska Omaha	3127	26	15	24	39	1.50	4	1	+20	14
Johnny Gaudreau	F	So.	Boston College	13411	20	12	19	31	1.55	2	6	+15	14
Brett Gensler	F	Jr.	Bentley	1483	23	12	19	31	1.35	2	2	+14	6
Wayne Simpson	F	Sr.	Union	2167	25	12	16	28	1.12	4	4	+12	6
Michael Mersch	F	Jr.	Wisconsin	1854	24	15	6	21	0.88	5	1	+8	6
Drew Leblanc	F	Sr.	St. Cloud State	2480	26	7	28	35	1.35	1	2	+13	8
Kyle Flanagan	F	Sr.	St. Lawrence	1393	23	12	21	33	1.43	4	2	+1	16
Kevin Goumas	F	Jr.	New Hampshire	149	23	10	20	30	1.30	2	2	+16	22
Mike Seidel	F	Sr.	Minnesota Duluth	3324	24	12	11	23	0.96	6	3	-1	12
Corban Knight	F	Sr.	North Dakota	17532	25	12	23	35	1.40	2	2	+12	24
Nick Bjugstad	F	Jr.	Minnesota	1113	26	13	12	25	0.96	5	2	+6	22
Greg Miller	F	Sr.	Cornell	3581	18	7	8	15	0.83	0	2	+9	2
Andy Starczewski	F	Sr.	Army	1742	22	6	13	19	0.86	0	1	+2	6

As you can see, each player has a statistic or two that allow them to stand out over most of the other players.  Ryan Walters for example may only be a junior, but he leads the league in points and has the highest plus/minus rating in all of college hockey.  This generally means his line can find ways to score while still managing to play a strong defense.

Johnny Gaudreau hasn't played as many games as most of the canidates on my list, but he has been able to establish a strong scoring presence, leading the league in points-per-game with the most game winning goals on the list.  Although Gaudreau's performance in the World Junior Championships shouldn't be taken into consideration when the decisions for the award winner is made, it's hard to ignore the fact that he help Team USA bring the gold medal home.

I cannot tell you how much of an emphasis is put on fan voting, but Corban Knight leads in that category by over 400 votes.  The senior has been playing solid hockey with North Dakota since his first game.  As a forward, he is one of the least selfish players i've seen, dumping the puck off to teammates making sure to make the best decision when it comes to helping his team skate off with a victory.

Obviously I don't know each individual personally, but i'm sure if they made the list they can't be awful guys right?  It'll be interesting to see who continues to push not only themselves, but their teams harder as the season continues.

To make a little bit of a comparison, I took the last 10 Hobey Baker Award winners and found their statistics the year they had one.  Again, keep in mind stats are not everything when it comes to this, but here is a tool for comparison.

Year	Player	Pos	Team	GP	G	A	Pts.	Pts/G
2012	Jack Connolly	C	Minnesota Duluth	41	20	40	60	1.46
2011	Andy Miele	LW	Miami Ohio	39	24	47	71	1.82
2010	Blake Geoffrion	C	Wisconsin	40	28	22	50	1.25
2009	Matt Gilroy	D	Boston University	45	8	29	37	0.82
2008	Kevin Porter	C	Michigan	43	33	30	63	1.47
2007	Ryan Duncan	LW	North Dakota	43	20	19	39	0.91
2006	Matt Carle	D	Denver	39	11	42	53	1.36
2005	Marty Sertich	C	Colorado College	42	14	36	50	1.19
2004	Junior Lessard	RW	Minnesota Duluth	45	32	31	63	1.40
2003	Peter Sejna	LW	Colorado College	42	36	46	82	1.95
			Averages:	41.9	22.6	34.2	56.8	1.36

Enjoy.

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