Hobey Baker reaction

The Hobey Baker award is an award given out to the best player in college hockey every year.

This year, Michigan State’s top attacker Isaac Howard won the Hobey Baker memorial award on Friday.

Howard led the nation in points per game with 1.41 and is the first Michigan State Spartan to win the Hobey Baker award since goaltender Ryan Miller in 2001.

Howard was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2022 draft. He was the 31st overall pick however he may return to Michigan State for his senior season.

It was a very close race for the Hobey Baker award as Howard won the honor over the two of the most talented players in college hockey.

Those two players were Denver’s Zeev Buium and Boston College’s Ryan Leonard, who are also both first round picks.

The Michigan State star finished the season with 52 points, cutting his goals and assists evenly with 26 each in 37 games.

However, before he even played a game for the Spartans, there was almost a chance that he would’ve never been able to play the sport he loved ever again.

He had to recover from a life-threatening defect that was found in his heart and had to get surgery. This didn’t stop him from being one of the best college hockey players in the country.

He didn’t miss a single game in his sophomore season and even leveled up his game this past season.

Howard helped Michigan State win both Big Ten regular season and conference tournament championships.

Howard also earned Big Ten player of the year honors and gave his team one of the top seeds in the NCAA tournament but they fell short in the tournament to Cornell.

Howard mentioned that he now only has one goal for his last year of college hockey and that is to win an NCAA championship.

Howard said that he wasn’t playing to win the Hobey Baker award in the first place this season and his main focus was to win a national championship and while they came up short, their chances have definitely not been shortened for next season.

Michigan State has a huge case to win it as they have many other key returning players likely along with Howard, including Trey Augustine, Charlie Stramel and Daniel Russell.

Michigan State has also gotten a huge boost with some offseason acquisitions which include the 2024 fourth overall pick in the NHL draft Cayden Lindstrom as well as St. Cloud State transfer Colin Ralph.

A big reason why Howard may return to Michigan State next year is because of some salary cap issues with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

He is considered one of the best prospects for the future of the Lightning as he has so much potential in terms of his offensive game.

While each of the players in the Hobey Hat Trick had their separate cases for winning the award, Howard showed a lot of fight this season and was able to come out on top and will look to achieve more of his goals next season.

Massimo Buonagurio is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at mkb6750@psu.edu.