Macklin Celebrini is your 2024 Hobey Baker Award winner. The Boston University freshman and top NHL draft prospect is the youngest ever to win the honor as college hockey’s best men’s player at the tender age of 17. Celebrini had serious competition from fellow finalists Cutter Gauthier (ANA) of Boston College and Jackson Blake (CAR) of North Dakota, but in the end it was the kid earning the votes.
And while the goal of a national championship fell at the hands of Denver in the semifinal, the phenom center from Vancouver is still taking away a lot from his season at Boston University.
“The last year has been amazing,” Celebrini said. “All the people there – everyone has been so awesome and supportive of our team and each of us individually. It’s been a special place to spend the last year. We had such a special group. We all got along so well and it honestly did feel like we were brothers. Those are relationships I don’t think any of us will forget. For each of us in our own ways we can learn from this experience and on different occasions where we got so close to get better for wherever we are in the future.”
Paw Patrol
Speaking of the Terriers, I was curious how the players earned the paw stickers on their helmets. Thankfully, I ran to old friend Brian Kelley at the awards ceremony, where the Boston U. associate athletic director for communications and brand services filled me in: Players earn stickers for heart-and-soul plays like blocked shots. And here’s something for Toronto Maple Leafs fans: As Kelley pointed out to me, big defenseman Cade Webber’s helmet was basically completely covered in stickers by the end thanks to all his shot blocks and sacrifices. Webber was acquired by Toronto this season from Carolina and actually just signed his entry-level deal.
Here Comes the Buium
Combining the first two items, here’s a little snack about a 2024 draft prospect who’s also a defenseman: Denver’s Zeev Buium. The Pioneers freshman is having an incredible season with 49 points through 41 games, plus a gold medal from the world juniors where he and Denver coach David Carle both represented Team USA. I asked Carle why Buium was able to have so much success this season:
“I think it probably starts with his mindset,” Carle said. “Very competitive person. Wants to be on the ice in big moments. Wants to impact the game. Has an ability to play the game that is in front of him, which is really impressive. I mean, he can be a part of opening a game up, but he also can be a part of shutting plays down and play in the 2-1 games. He doesn’t look uncomfortable in our NCAA tournament games, he didn’t look uncomfortable at the juniors not being on the power play. To me it’s hard to find a more impactful player – shift in, shift out, game in, game out – that’s available in the draft.”
Related: 2024 NHL Draft Notebook: Celebrini, Buium and Levshunov Stand Out at the NCAA Tournament
State of the Union
At every Frozen Four, there’s a state of the union press conference featuring coaches, commissioners and other key NCAA minds. I always find it incredibly interesting because a lot of big-picture issues get discussed here. This year was no exception, with a lot of talk about the transfer portal and the continuing evolution of college sports thanks to NILs for American student-athletes.
University of Minnesota-Duluth coach and multiple Frozen Four champion Scott Sandelin has been pretty open about his feelings about the transfer portal recently, but was a little more diplomatic when I asked him about how the free movement of players has impacted his job as a bench boss/recruiter.
“The pool is different now because you don’t know,” he said. “We used to just worry about who was going pro. Now you got to worry about whether you are going to have a player from year to year. As far as our work, we’re going to continue to recruit players, fill holes as long as the portal is there. This is our team. We’re going to build from the recruiting world and continue to do that. But that’s part of what I was saying. We’ll see the impact it has over some time here. It certainly changed a little bit in just the last couple years. So there’s a little bit more challenge. I think everyone’s going to do what they need to do. From our school, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to follow that path. Hopefully we create a program where nobody wants to leave.”
Another hot topic was the idea of major junior players becoming NCAA-eligible in the future. As Hockey East commissioner Steve Metcalf pointed out, there won’t be any news about this immediately: Coaches are meeting in Florida in early May and the NCAA will hear the feedback that comes out of that conference, digest it and go from there.
The transfer portal and the CHL issue seem to go hand-in-hand right now: If certain schools begin to consistently lose transfers to other programs, how can they get that level of talent back? Major junior kids would be a potential answer. Now, that opens up an issue for the CHL, which has already seen a number of high-profile Canadian kids go the college route recently – Celebrini, Adam Fantilli and Owen Power, for example – but that’s another big, big issue altogether.
Related: Frozen Four Notebook: Denver and Boston College Will Dance For the Title
News Summary:
- Frozen Four Notebook: Macklin Celebrini Wins Hobey, NCAA Confronts the Transfer Portal
- Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.