MINNEAPOLIS — If the Big Ten had a gala ceremony at a sold-out theater to hand out its year-end hockey awards, similar to the Oscars or the Emmys, the Minnesota Gophers would need plenty of seats in the auditorium.
On Wednesday the conference announced its finalists for the five year-end honors which will be handed out on March 14, and not surprisingly there is at least one Gopher among the top three in every category.
It starts behind the bench, where head coach Bob Motzko is a finalist to repeat as Big Ten coach of the year. Motzko is looking to win the award for the second year in a row, and for the third time in his five seasons as the Gophers’ coach. Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik is a finalist, as is first-year Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale, who will face Motzko head-to-head in a one-game Big Ten tournament semifinal game this weekend. Nightingale, a former Spartans player, directed MSU to the first two Big Ten postseason wins in program history last weekend.
The Gophers’ run to the 2023 conference title was fueled in large part by the on-ice work of their dynamic top line of sophomore Matthew Knies and rookies Logan Cooley and Jimmy Snuggerud. When the Big Ten freshman of the year is announced, both Cooley and Snuggerud are in the mix, along with Michigan forward Adam Fantili. Cooley and Snuggerud, who also played together last season with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, have both been picked in the first round of the NHL Draft, while Fantili is projected to be a top-10 draft pick in 2023. Minnesota Mr. Hockey winner Sammy Walker, who has played a few games with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild this season, is the Gophers' only Big Ten rookie of the year award winner, in 2019.
Much of the Gophers success in 2022-23 has been due to rock-solid goaltending, and senior puck-stopper Justen Close is one of the three finalists for the Big Ten’s top goalie. Joining him in the final trio are Ohio State’s Jakub Dobes, who was the conference’s top freshman last season, and Notre Dame goalie Ryan Bischel, who was a Minnesota prep star for Benilde-St. Margaret's.
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The Gophers’ veteran defensive corps has drawn raves all season, with three veteran players — Jackson LaCombe, Ryan Johnson and Brock Faber — who could step into NHL lineups without much transition. Faber, the Gophers’ captain, was an All-Big Ten first-teamer last season and is a finalist to repeat as Big Ten defensive player of the year in 2023. His competition for the award includes Ohio State sophomore Mason Lohrei and Michigan blueliner Luke Hughes.
Hughes and Bischel are also finalists for the Big Ten’s player of the year award, alongside Knies, who was on the conference’s second team as a freshman last season. Knies leads the nation with seven game-winning goals and is one of three Gophers nominated for the Hobey Baker Award.
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