Harvard Senior Jimmy Vesey Wins Hobey Baker Award
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Harvard senior forward Jimmy Vesey won the Hobey Baker Award on Friday as the top player in college hockey, edging Michigan freshman forward Kyle Connor and Boston College junior goalie Thatcher Demko.
"I'm just honored to be here and honored to receive the award," Vesey said. "I can't say it enough, congrats to Kyle and Thatcher on their seasons, because they were both equally deserving of this award."
Vesey, from North Reading, Massachusetts, is the fourth Harvard player to win the award, following Mark Fusco in 1983, Scott Fusco in 1986 and Lane MacDonald in 1989.
Vesey had 24 goals and 22 assists in 33 games this season. Drafted 66th overall by Nashville in 2012, he has elected to become a free agent. Nashville will lose his rights Aug. 15.
"I think I just wanted to finish what I started at Harvard and make sure I'm around for the next month or so of school to graduate and walk at graduation and receive my diploma," Vesey said. "I'm going to train hard this summer and make sure when August comes I'm ready to pick which team I want to go to and enter training camp and kind of hit the ground running."
Vesey's father, Jim, is a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto also drafted younger brother Nolan, a sophomore at Maine, in 2014. The elder Vesey played briefly in the NHL with St. Louis and Boston.
Baker was a football and hockey star for Princeton and the biggest name in hockey before serving in the Army Air Corps during World War I. He was 26, already scheduled to be shipped home, when he was killed in a plane crash in France.
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