Cole Caufield wins the Hobey Baker Award

After having one of the finest individual season in Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey history, Cole Caufield, a sophomore out of Stevens Point, was announced as the winner of the 2021 Hobey Baker Award, given annually to the best men’s hockey player in the country.

Caufield is the second Badger to win the prestigious award, center Blake Geoffrion won back in 2010, and he is also the second native Wisconsinite to win the award with Madison native Will Butcher (Denver, defenseman) winning in 2017. This is also the first time that a Big Ten player has won the award. UW goalie Brian Elliott was a finalist in 2006 as was center Steve Reinprecht in 2000.

The unanimous Big Ten Player of the Year racked up almost too many accolades this season. Besides leading the Badgers back to the NCAA Tournament, the finals of the Big Ten Tournament and winning the Big Ten regular season title, Caufield was the leading scorer in the conference for the second straight season (the first player to ever do that). On Friday evening, Caufield was also named a first team all-America selection. Linus Weissbach and Dylan Holloway made the second team.

He leads the nation with 30 goals and 52 points in 31 games and, in conference play, averaged 1.79 points per game, scoring 24 goals and totaling 43 points. Those totals were 10 more (both goals and points) than any other player in the conference. He leads the nation with 11 power-play goals, third with five game-winning goals and sixth with 22 assists. He finished the season on nine-game point streak (13 goals, six assists) and it’s truly a shame that we weren’t able to watch him play deeper into the NCAA Tournament.

Also, he managed to do all of this while winning a gold medal at the World Juniors with Team USA during the middle of Wisconsin’s season.

Caufield is currently (as in, while the Hobey Baker ceremony is happening) playing in his first professional hockey game with the Laval Rocket, the AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens.