Three Huskies received accolades on Thursday night at the annual Hockey East banquet. Hobey Baker Award nominee and recent Pittsburgh Penguins-signee senior Zach Aston-Reese was named conference Player of the Year, as well as named to the All-Conference First Team. He was also named to the All-Conference first team as voted on by the Hockey East Writers and Broadcasters Association. Aston-Reese totaled 63 points this season, tied for the most by any player from Hockey East (Tyler Kelleher, UNH). He led the conference in goal scoring (17) as well as the nation (31). Aston-Reese was also named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, one of the final ten players up for the award. You can vote for Aston-Reese once a day here.
Hear what @hockey_east Player of the Year Zach Aston-Reese had to say at last night's league banquethttps://t.co/TVLdT0HmDC#GoNU pic.twitter.com/B9HW99BLb5
— Northeastern Men’s Hockey (@GoNUmhockey) March 17, 2017
Dylan Sikura was named to the All Conference Second Team by both the conference and the Hockey East Writers and Broadcasters Association. Adam Gaudette was named to the All Conference Third Team. Sikura was third overall in scoring amongst Hockey East players (57), as well as third in conference games (32). He led the nation with 32 powerplay points. Gaudette tied for fourth in conference scoring (28) and was second to Aston-Reese in conference goals (15). He tied for the national lead in powerplay goals (16) and is fourth overall in goals (26).
Freshman defenseman Jeremy Davies was voted to the All-Rookie team by the HEWBA, but was a noticeable snub from the All-Rookie team, which inexplicably was chosen to have three forwards, one defenseman, and two goalies, a standard that none of the other conference teams were held to. He is one of several Hockey East defensemen who have a legitimate case for inclusion on that team.
In all, ten of Hockey East’s twelve teams were honored with players placed on the all-conference teams. Vermont and UMass were the only teams to have not players chosen. Vermont did have a player named to the All-Rookie team, however.