Hockey East announced Thursday that Maine junior goaltender Jeremy Swayman is the 2020 Hockey East Player of the Year.
In addition, Boston College forward Alex Newhook has been named Hockey East Rookie of the Year and Maine’s Red Gendron is the Hockey East Coach of the Year.
Swayman is the first Maine goaltender to win Hockey East’s top individual honor and the first Black Bear to be so named since Spencer Abbot in 2011-12. During the Hockey East regular season, Swayman led the league in saves (782), save percentage (.932) and tied for the lead in shutouts (3) while his 12 wins in Hockey East tied for second.
Overall, Swayman carried a record of 18-11-5 and led the NCAA in saves with 1,099 stops. His save percentage of .939 ranked second among all goaltenders in the nation, while his 2.07 GAA was good for 15th in the country.
On Tuesday, Swayman signed with the Boston Bruins, the NHL club that selected him in the fourth round (111th overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft.
Newhook finished second among all league players in conference scoring with 15 goals and 18 assists for 33 points in 24 games, while leading the league with a plus-25 rating. His 15 goals were second among all skaters, and he paced all Hockey East freshmen in goals and points.
A Colorado Avalanche first-round pick (16th overall) in 2019, Newhook led the Eagles in scoring with 19 goals and 23 assists for 42 points.
Gendron guided the Black Bears to their best Hockey East regular-season finish since the 2011-12 season, claiming the fourth seed in the Hockey East tournament with a 12-9-3 record in league play, and an 18-11-5 mark overall.
Maine also went 13-1-3 this season at Alfond Arena.
Gendron coached a squad that had the third-stingiest team defense in Hockey East play in 2019-20, allowing just 2.33 goals per game. The seventh-year bench boss of the Black Bears led his program to an 83.7 penalty kill success rate, denying 87 of 104 opponent’s power plays while converting on 15 of 77 man advantages of their own (19.5%) and allowing no short-handed goals against.
