Thursday, June 27, 2024

Former All-Americans Hellebuyck, Hughes Among NHL Award Winners

Five NCAA Alums Earn All-Star Team Nods, Three More on All-Rookie Team

Former All-Americans Hellebuyck, Hughes Among NHL Award Winners
Quinn Hughes is the third NCAA alumni in four years to win the Norris Trophy (Photo: Vancouver Canucks via Jordan Jones).

LAS VEGAS — A pair of former college hockey standouts captured major individual NHL awards and five were named to the NHL All-Star Team at the 2024 NHL Awards on Thursday at Fontainebleau.

Winnipeg netminder Connor Hellebuyck, a former All-American at UMass Lowell, won his second Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s most outstanding goalie, while Vancouver captain Quinn Hughes, a former All-American at Michigan, won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the league’s top defenseman.

Hellebuyck went 37-19-4 for the Jets in 2023-24, finishing second in the NHL in wins (37) and save percentage (.921), fourth in GAA (2.39) and tied for fifth in shutouts (5). He previously won the award in 2020. He became the first NCAA alum to win multiple Vezina Trophies since former North Dakota standout Ed Belfour did it in 1991 and 1993.

Hughes led all NHL defensemen in points (92), assists (75) and plus/minus (+38) this past season, his first as Vancouver’s captain. His 92 points were the second-most ever by a former college hockey defenseman, topped only by Brian Leetch’s 102-point campaign for the New York Rangers in 1991-92. Hughes became the third NCAA alumni in the last four years to win the Norris Trophy, joining Colorado’s Cale Makar (UMass) in 2022 and the Rangers’ Adam Fox (Harvard) in 2021.

Hellebuyck and Hughes were also both named to the 2023-24 NHL First All-Star Team, while Fox, Makar and Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko (Boston College) were each named to the NHL Second All-Star Team.

Additionally, half of the 2023-24 NHL All-Rookie Team was comprised of NCAA alumni: Arizona forward Logan Cooley and Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber, who were collegiate teammates at Minnesota, as well as New Jersey defenseman Luke Hughes, who played collegiately at Michigan.