Colorado Avalanche prospect Cale Makar named to the NCAA’s Hobey Hat Trick

Colorado Avalanche top prospect Cale Makar was announced as a top three finalist for the Hobey Baker Award on Thursday morning.

Jimmy Schuldt (Vegas) of St. Cloud State and Adam Fox (Carolina) of Harvard round out the 2019 Hobey Hat Trick.

Makar will be the only Hobey Baker nominee at the Frozen Four next week in Buffalo. He becomes the first player in UMass Minutemen history to be named to the Hobey Hat Trick (defenseman Thomas Pock was a top ten finalist in 2004). Hobey Baker top ten voting closed on March 31st, and Makar finished first in voting at 40.6% — with a 20% gap separating him from second place.

Makar led UMass to its first Frozen Four berth in program history, thanks to his stellar performance in the Northeast Regional this past weekend. He was named to the all-tournament team and the most outstanding player of the Northeast Regional. Makar was also named to the CHN’s first all-tournament team, the Hockey East co-player of the week, and UMass athlete of the week. The Minutemen are the only team in the entire NCAA to have not lost consecutive games this season and have scored 54 third period goals (2nd in the country).

Makar has a chance to become the second Avalanche prospect in the last three years to win the Hobey (Will Butcher in 2017) and the second consecutive Hockey East player to win the award (Adam Gaudette, Northeastern, won last year). Although fan voting will not take place to vote for the Hobey winner, Makar has clearly separated himself from the rest of the field, and is arguably the best player in college hockey this season.

His coach doesn’t even think there’s an argument:

The 39th Hobey Baker Award winner will be announced on April 12th at 6pm EST. It will be televised on NHL Network and streamed on the Hobey Baker website.