Proposal: The Doug Woog Award

I've occasionally wondered over the past few months what college hockey could do to honor late Minnesota head coach Doug Woog.

On Tuesday, it hit me.

The Doug Woog Award should be awarded to the best Minnesotan playing college hockey for a D1 men's hockey team in the state.

This award exists in some form out east. For nearly 70 years, the best American-born player at a New England school has been awarded the Walter Brown Award. (Maine's Jeremy Swayman, a native of Anchorage, was the 2020 recipient.) For years, I've made an annual tweet about how the award should exist among the five Minnesota schools.

After all, there are few things Minnesotans love more than celebrating Minnesota hockey.

I understand why no such award in Minnesota exists. Until the late 1980s, there were only two Minnesota D1 men's hockey schools.
When Woog finished coaching, Minnesota State had yet to join the WCHA. The sport looks completely different than how it was in 1998.

However, it's time.

If the North Star College Cup was too soon to heal wounds, why not an award that honors the best individual to help? The state continues to be successful individually. A year ago, three Minnesota schools were the top three overall seeds in the NCAA Tournament. UMD, under Scott Sandelin (Hibbing), won a second straight national championship with 17 players from the "State of Hockey." Teams are adding more players from outside the state - Minnesota State, in particular, has done a fantastic job being successful of late finding diamonds in the rough out of state - but Minnesotans continue to play major roles in all five teams.

What better way to honor a coach whose success at Minnesota came with an all-Minnesotan lineup than an award for the best MN player in the state?

Who Would Have Won The Award?

If the award existed this year, Minnesota Duluth's Scott Perunovich would be an easy choice. A Hobey Baker top-10 finalist (as of this writing), the Bulldogs junior and Hibbing native has been the top defenseman in the country.

He's not the only player from the "State of Hockey" to have a big year. Minnesota's Scott Reedy (Prior Lake) exploded in his junior year with 15 goals, St. Cloud State's Jack Ahcan (Savage) quietly put together an outstanding season, and Minnesota State was 12-1-0 when Reggie Lutz (Elk River) scored a goal.

Obviously, the award does not exist. That did not stop me from going back to figure out who could or should have won the award since 2012.

Past Fictional Doug Woog Award Winners:
2020: Scott Perunovich, Minnesota Duluth (HM: Hunter Shepard, Cole Koepke, Scott Reedy, Jack Ahcan, Reggie Lutz)
2019: Jimmy Schuldt, St. Cloud State (HM: Perunovich, Rem Pitlick, Blake Lizotte, Shepard)
2018: C.J. Suess, Minnesota State (HM: Schuldt, Perunovich)
2017: Tyler Sheehy, Minnesota (HM: Michael Bitzer and Hunter Miska)
2016: Charlie Lindgren, St. Cloud State (HM: Ethan Prow, Joey Benik)
2015: Mike Reilly, Minnesota (HM: Zach Palmquist)
2014: Adam Wilcox, Minnesota (HM: Reilly, Kyle Rau)
2013: Drew LeBlanc, St. Cloud State (HM: Nate Schmidt, Nick Bjugstad)
2012: Jack Connolly, Minnesota Duluth (HM: JT Brown, Bjugstad, Kent Patterson)

Some choices, such as Hobey Baker Award winners Drew LeBlanc and Jack Connolly, are simple. Others, such as Suess over Schuldt, Sheehy over Bitzer, or Wilcox over Reilly, are heavily up for debate.

Agree with the winners? Disagree? Think this is a good idea? Let me know in the comments.

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