By Jared Shafran, College Hockey, Inc.
Only four teams remain in the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs, and an easy argument could be made that the top three players in the tournament to this point all played college hockey. Could one of these three players follow Jonathan Toews and give college hockey back-to-back Conn Smythe Trophy winners as playoff MVP?
Ryan Kesler
The former Buckeye is the hottest player on Vancouver, which eliminated Nashville in a six-game series in the Western Conference semifinals. Of the 14 goals that Vancouver scored on the Predators, Kesler had a hand in 11 of them, scoring five himself and assisting on six others. He registered multiple points in each of the last four games of the series and scored the game-winning goals in games 3 and 4, both crucial wins to give the Canucks control of the series.
Kesler has said his time spent in Columbus playing in college allowed him to develop as a player and put him in position to make it in the NHL.
"The school was great, the facilities were great and as the season went on I really excelled," said Kesler. "I really grew as a person and a player."
Tim Thomas
In addition to being the front-running candidate for this year's Vezina trophy, former University of Vermont goaltender Tim Thomas has been the backbone behind the Boston Bruins' success in the playoffs. Thomas has started and finished all 11 games for Boston during the postseason, posting a 2.03 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage.
Thomas was a late recruit to UVM, where he played with Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis. Thomas has said he wouldn't be where he's at in his hockey career if it weren't for his time in Burlington.
"The biggest thing for me was just maturing and learning to live on my own," said Thomas. "It was my first time away from home - no rules, and I had to learn to grow up, so that's probably the best thing that college - not just hockey, but university itself - helped me to do."
Dwayne Roloson
Dwayne Roloson is no stranger to playoff success, having played in a Stanley Cup final with the Edmonton Oilers in 2006, but after a four-year absence from postseason play, he has picked up right where he left off. Roloson leads all playoffs goaltenders in both GAA (2.01) and save percentage (.941). Roloson got a new start after he was traded from the Islanders to the Lightning in early January and has made the most of it, carrying the Bolts to the conference finals, where he hopes to get back and compete in another final.
A Hockey East alum, Roloson played with the UMass Lowell Riverhawks. The Ontario native said he knew all along he wanted to go to college and the small school in Massachusetts was one of the first to offer him a scholarship.
"I was going the NCAA route somewhere," Roloson said. "Wanted the education and got the degree; make sure if hockey doesn't work out I have something to fall back on."
A few other former college players could join the race for the Conn Smythe before things are through - Dan Boyle (San Jose/Miami) leads all defensemen in scoring in the playoffs and Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay/Vermont) has been the Lightning's best forward.
Overall, former college players make up 32% of the lineups iced by the final four teams standing in the playoffs. And as Kesler, Thomas, Roloson and others have shown, they have had an even larger impact on the results.