The 2025-26 NCAA season has come to a close with the Denver Pioneers capturing the 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship on April 11, 2026. NIL funds changed the game as high-end players, such as future 2026 first-rounders Gavin McKenna (Penn State) and Keaton Verhoeff (North Dakota), flocked to college hockey to prepare for an aspiring NHL career. While both players were crucial members of their teams, neither off the major awards handed out in college hockey this season. With the final puck across the NCAA goal line this season, let’s take a look at the top performers and trophy winners following the 2025-26 campaign.
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NCAA Top Performers
Quinnipiac freshman Ethan Wyttenbach (59 points) held off Michigan’s T.J. Hughes (56), Minnesota Duluth’s Max Plante (52) to claim the NCAA scoring title. Wyttenbach, a 2025 fifth round (144st overall) pick by Calgary, finished with 25 goals and 59 points in 40 games. His 25 goal celebrations were the second most in college hockey, trailing only Dartmouth forward Hayden Stavroff 29 tallies in 2026.
McKenna made a furious charge at the assist lead on the collegiate frozen floor this season, but a Big Ten rival from Michigan forced the future first rounder to settled for second place with his 36 helpers. Michael Hage, a 2024 first rounder (21st overall) by Montreal, led the NCAA with 38 assists. Wolverines teammate T.J. Hughes, an undrafted forward who signed with the Colorado Avalanache on April 11, finished in third place with 35 assists.
Denver goaltender Johnny Hicks, an undrafted rookie, posted a 16-0-1 record and set a new single-season record for save percentage (SV%) with a .957 stop rate in 2025-26. The freshman allowed 22 goals on 514 shots to break Jimmy Howard’s (Maine) record of a .956 SV% from the 2003-04 season. Hicks recorded the third-best goalie season in NCAA history with a 1.20 goals against average (GAA), trailing only Howard’s 1.19 GAA in 2003-04 amd Quinnpiac’s Yaniv Perets 1.17 GAA in 2021-22. Western Michigan’s Hampton Slukynsky, a 2023 fourth round (118th overall) selection by Los Angeles, finished with the most wins (27) among netminders in the NCAA.
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NCAA Award Winners
UMD’s Max Plante won the 2026 Hobey Baker Award, the highest individual prize in men’s college hockey. The 20-year-0ld center scored 25 goals and totaled 52 points in 40 games. Plante, a second round (47th overall) draft pick by Detroit, is the seventh Hobey Baker Award winner in Minnesota Duluth history, and the first since Scott Perunovich in 2020. No program has claimed the trophy more times that the Bulldogs since the award was introduced in 1980-81. Denver’s Eric Pohlkamp, a 2023 fifth round (132nd overall) choice by San Jose, and Michigan’s Hughes finished in the final three.
A significant number of Max Plante’s 27 assists were to his brother, Zam Plante, who also eclipsed the 50-point platueau for the Bulldogs this season following a 20-goal, 31-assist campaign. Max could competition in the family for highest draft among immediate family this summer. Victor Plante, a forward who scored 40 points in 50 games for the United States National Team Development Program (USNTDP), eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old has a second-round consolidated grade (#46) on Elite Prospects and is projected as a first round draft (22nd overall) option by The Hockey News. Victor is committed to Minnesota Duluth next season.
Michigan State’s Trey Augustine won the Mike Richter Award as the top goaltender in college hockey following 24-9-1 record with a 2.11 GAA and a .929 SV%. He is the first winner of the award in Spartan’s program history. Augustine, a 2023 second round (41st overall) by Detroit, finished the 2025-26 campaign with a stellar 10-2-0 record against top-five opponents and won the Big Ten Goaltender of the Year for the second consecutive season. The 21-year-old had a rough introduction to life at the professional hockey level with an 0-2-0 record, a 3.39 GAA, and a .878 SV% in two games for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins following the conclusion of Michigan State’s season.
Quinnipiac’s Wyttenbach claimed the Tim Taylor Award as the top rookie in the NCAA. The 19-year-old from Long Island, New York finished had 17 multi-point games for the Bobcats, the second-most in the NCAA scene. Wyttenbach join Sam Anas (2014) as the only Quinnipiac players to win the Tim Taylor Award in program history.
Dartmouth’s Reid Cashman won the Spencer T. Penrose Award as the top coach in college hockey after leading the Big Green to its first ECAC Hockey Tournament title in program history. Dartmouth finished with a 23-8-4 record and a 13-5-4 record in conference play. Cashman is the second winner of the Penrose Award, joining the award’s inaugural winner, Edward Jeremiah, in 1951. Jeremiah secured the award a second time in the 1967 season, too. He completed his career with a 308-247-12 record over three decades of leading the Big Green from behind the bench.
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With the college scene coming to a close, we will still have fresh college hockey content coming your way. Up next in our series will be a look at the chaos that unfolded at the 2026 Frozen Four in Las Vegas, Nevada in early April. Four of the NCAA’s best – Denver, Michigan, North Dakota, and Wisconsin – battled over two days with David Carle leading adding another ring to his impressive run at Denver. The 36-year-old bench boss has led his squad to the crown jewel of collegiate puck three times since 2022. But we will get to that and a whole lot more as we enter another interesting offseason in the NCAA.
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