Posted on

Luke Hughes Named Finalist for Hobey Baker Award

Devils 2021 first round draft pick Luke Hughes has been named a top ten finalist for the Hobey Baker Award.

The Hobey Baker Award is given annually to the best college hockey player in the nation. Hughes is a freshman defenseman at the University of Michigan.

As noted by Leen Amin of EliteSportsNY.com, “Hughes is the only defenseman among the ten finalists. And the only freshman among the finalists as well.”

The only other Michigan Wolverine in among the finalists this year is Matty Beniers, a 2021 Seattle Kraken draft pick.

Hughes was earlier named co-winner of the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award along with Jakub Dobes – a goaltender from Ohio State. Amada Stein noted in an article on NewJerseyDevils,com that Hughes and Dobes together “are the first non-forwards to win the league’s rookie of the year award.”

In addition, Hughes was named a member of the Second-Team All-Big Ten Team and the Big Ten All-Freshman Team, both according to Stein.

Stein also said in her profile on Hughes that he led the NCAA in scoring among defensemen this season with 36 points (17 goals and 19 assists) over 37 games – averaging nearly a point per game. Those 17 goals, Stein said, is “a new Michigan record for a freshman defenseman” eclipsing Dean Turner’s 13 scoring in 1975-76.

His 36 points total are also a record for a Wolverine defenseman. That record was previously held by Jack Johnson, who notched 32 in his freshman year. Luke’s brother Quinn had 29 in his first season at Michigan.

The Wolverines won the Big Ten men’s hockey tournament yesterday with a 4-3 win over the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The 2022 Big Ten champs will now get ready for the NCAA Tournament with the NCAA Ice Hockey Selection Show airing tonight on ESPNU.

Hughes was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team along with teammates, forwards Beniers, Brendan Brisson and Mackie Samoskevich, defenseman Jackson LaCombe and goalie Erik Portillo (who was also named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player).

The NCAA Tournament regionals will begin Thursday, March 24. The 2022 Men’s Frozen Four will start on Thursday, April 7 and conclude on Saturday, April 9 from the TD Garden in Boston.

Posted on

Riveters Win Championship; Devils Sign Goalie Cam Johnson

The Metropolitan Riveters are the champions of the NWHL. They defeated the Buffalo Beauts 1-0 yesterday at RWJ Barnabas Hockey House in Newark to win the Isobel Cup – their first in franchise history.

In front of a sellout crowd, according to Marisa Ingemi of ESPN.com, the Riveters got a goal from Alexa Gruschow and a shutout performance from goaltender Katie Fitzgerald (who was named MVP according to Ingemi). According to Dan Rice of NWHL.zone – the league’s official website – she made 28 saves. She was able to stare down Buffalo goalie Amanda Leveille in what was a classic goalie’s duel. The Beauts were trying for their second title, which would have made them the first NWHL team to repeat.

The Riveters won their first championship in the league’s third season of existence. The Boston Pride won the first year.

Ingemi said that in addition to the live sellout at the Hockey House, “the livestream broadcast of the game exceeded 45,000 live viewers.” The Riveters’ Miye D’Oench was quoted by Ingemi as saying “It was amazing – the crowd was bumping. We appreciate every single person who came. It was such a great atmosphere. This is what women’s hockey should be like.”

Coach Chad Wiseman was quoted by Ingemi as saying “I don’t know how to express how that feels. From the first season at the Aviator [a recreational sports complex on Long Island] with no dressing room throwing our stuff all around, and now we’re playing at an NHL facility.”

Ingemi said “for all the players have been through, from playing in a second-bit rink to winning the title with the support and backing of an NHL club, the New Jersey Devils, (winning the championship) symbolizes progress.”

Congratulations to the Metropolitan Riveters on their well-deserved Isobel Cup championship. Let’s hope their NHL brothers can do something similar later this spring.

In Devils related news, the team announced yesterday that they have signed goalie Cam Johnson to a one-year entry-level contract.

The contract kicks in in 2018-19. He was a college free agent (just like Keith Kinkaid – who was signed as an undrafted free agent out of college) “who just completed his senior season at the University of North Dakota” according to the Devils’ press release.

The press release said that he “will travel to Binghamton and sign an AHL amateur tryout contract with the club on Tuesday.”

The 23 year-old Johnson played 102 games at North Dakota, going 56-26-12 in his four seasons there. He had 12 shutouts and is North Dakota’s “all-time leader in career goals-against average (2.10), ranks second in career shutouts (12), fourth in wins (56) and career save percentage (.916).” In NCAA playoff/NCHC conference playoff games, he is a career 10-3.

The press release stated that his best season was 2015-16. That season, he had career highs in wins (24), shutouts (five), goals against average (1.66) and save percentage (.935) in 34 games played. That was also the year UND won the NCAA National Championship. Personally, he was named to the NCHC Second All-Star Team, NCAA West Second All-American Team and NCAA All-Tournament Team. The press release notes that he was named to the NCHC All-Academic Team all four of his college seasons.

The 6-foot, 1-inch, 200-pound native of Troy, Michigan played with the Fargo Force and Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL for two seasons prior to moving to the University of North Dakota.