Selected by the Preds in the third round of the 2017 Draft, the senior defenseman from Boston University is up for the award for the second consecutive year. The 21-year-old appeared in just 10 of the Terriers 15 games played, but he still recorded 16 points (5g-11a) to tie for the team lead in scoring.
Farrance's average of 1.6 points-per-game led all defensemen in the nation and slotted him third among all players. The 6-foot, 190-pound blueliner posted 88 points (26g-62a) in 112 career games, and he recorded 14 points (4g-10a) in just six games during the month of January alone in 2021.
The Hobey Hat Trick (three finalists) will be announced on April 1, and the winner of the award will be revealed on April 9 live on the NHL Network and streamed on the Hobey Baker website at 5 p.m. CT.
Of course, Farrance's numbers were also impressive enough to see him named to the Hockey East Association First All-Star Team, and three more Preds prospects were named Third-Team All-Stars.
Junior defenseman Marc Del Gaizo of Massachusetts, as well as junior forward Jachym Kondelik and junior goaltender Tomas Vomacka, both of UCONN, earned the accolades as well.
Drafted by Nashville in the fourth round in 2019, Del Gaizo was named a third-team Hockey East All-Star for the second time in his career after first collecting the award as a freshman in 2018-19. The 21-year-old finished the season with three goals and 12 points in 22 games, with all three tallies coming in his final four contests of the season.
Kondelik, a fourth-round pick of the Preds in 2018, led Hockey East in assists (18) during the regular season. The 6-foot-5 centerman finished the campaign with 21 points in 22 games, and he was tied for eighth nationally averaging 0.82 assists per game. Kondelik recorded his first-career hat trick in the regular-season finale to help the Huskies secure the No. 4 seed in the postseason tournament, their highest-ever finish in Hockey East. The 21-year-old was 12th in Hockey East face-off winning percentage, with .552 percent (255-207) success rate on the year.
Vomacka started all 22 games this season for UConn and played the most minutes of any goaltender in Hockey East. The 6-foot-3 netminder logged 1,333:43 of ice time and earned 10 wins with one shutout. Picked by the Predators in the fifth round of the 2017 Draft, Vomacka stopped 622 shots, more than any other goaltender in the league and fourth overall in the nation. He posted a 2.70 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage in those 22 outings, and Vomacka was fourth nationally in minutes played while leading the country in playing the highest percentage of his team's minutes (99.5 percent).
Defenseman Spencer Stastney earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors after completing his junior season with Notre Dame. Selected by the Predators in the fifth round in 2018, Stastney tallied a career-high five goals in 29 games and finished the campaign with 12 points. His five goals were tied for the most by a Big Ten defenseman, and the 5-foot-11 blueliner was an Academic All-Big Ten selection in each of the past two seasons.
Finally, another puck-stopper was also worthy of praise after his first collegiate season.
Ethan Haider, a 2019 fifth-round selection by the Predators, was named the ECAC Hockey 2021 Rookie of the Year thanks to his work at Clarkson University. The 19-year-old led ECAC Hockey in save percentage (.938 percent), and goals-against average (1.58) during conference play, and he finished the season with a 7-5-4 record, including just one loss in his last eight games.
The 6-foot-3 Haider was also one of the top rookie netminders in the nation, ranking second among freshmen in goals-against average, fifth in save percentage and third in wins. He posted seven games where he allowed one goal or less, all of which came against league opponents.
The 2021 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey DI selection show comes this Sunday where the tournament will be set up to lead to the 2021 Frozen Four, which is set for April 8-10 in Pittsburgh.
