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ESPN’s SportsCenter had some sports news to cover last night. Via video conference, the network interviewed Blues prospect Scott Perunovich shortly after announcing that he had won the 2020 Hobey Baker Award.
The award is given every year to the top college hockey player, and the recent Blues signee had a solid season playing for the University of Minnesota-Duluth. He had 40 points (6 goals, 34 assists) in 34 games. Perunovich raked up the awards during a truncated college hockey season, being named NCHC’s Player of the Year as well as being named All-American for his second year and First Team all-conference for the third time.
Former winners of the Hobey Baker Award include stars such as Jack Eichel and Johnny Gaudreau. Not every winner of the award goes on to NHL success, but regardless of if the award is a career benchmark or not, it is still a high honor and a difficult award to be given. It’s not entirely skills based; according to the awards committee it takes off-ice contributions and academics into consideration. Having solid academics while devoting time to on-ice skill development and playing hockey is no small achievement by itself.