(UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS) SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The high-scoring Wisconsin men’s hockey team, set to play in the 2021 Big Ten Tournament championship game on Tuesday night, earned its share of individual honors when eight different Badgers were named either All-Big Ten, to the Big Ten All-Freshman team or a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner on Tuesday afternoon.
Those honored are Cole Caufield, Dylan Holloway, Linus Weissbach, Ty Pelton-Byce, Ty Emberson, Cameron Rowe, Brock Caufield and head coach Tony Granato.
Big Ten Player of the Year Cole Caufield is the eighth Badger to win a conference player of the year award and the first since defenseman Jamie McBain took the WCHA Player of the Year in 2009. The sophomore is the first Badger to be named Big Ten Player of the Year, an award that follows his title of Big Ten Freshman of the Year from 2020.
Caufield won the Big Ten scoring title with 24 goals and 43 points in 24 games played, outpacing the next closest skater by 10 goals and 10 points. The 2019 Montreal Canadiens first-round draft pick also set the Big Ten standard for goals in a conference season with the performance.
Other UW conference players of the year are Mike Eaves (1978), Mark Johnson (1979), Curtis Joseph (1989), Gary Shuchuk (1990), Duane Derksen (1992), Steve Reinprecht (2000) and McBain (2009).
Joining Caufield on the 2021 All-Big Ten first team is fellow sophomore Holloway, who averaged 1.72 points per game in Big Ten play, second behind Caufield. The 2020 Edmonton Oilers first-round pick finished with 11 goals and 31 points in 18 league games to finish third in total scoring and fourth in goals.
Weissbach was named 2021 All-Big Ten second team after finished second in the Big Ten with 33 points on nine goals and 24 assists. The senior forward and 2017 Buffalo Sabres seventh-round pick was a member of the 2018 All-Big Ten Freshman Team.
Senior forward and alternate captain Pelton-Byce, who shared fourth in league games with 11 goals and fifth with 25 points, joins junior defenseman and captain Emberson as All-Big Ten honorable mention. Emberson is a 2018 third-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes. Emberson, who leads the Badgers at plus-16, was one of three finalists for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
Goaltender Rowe earned 2021 Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors after leading all goaltenders in the Big Ten with a 7-0-1 record, 1.73 goals-against average and .947 save percentage in conference action. He also earned one league shutout.
Junior forward Brock Caufield earned Wisconsin’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award for his play. The Stevens Point, Wisconsin, native is the lone Badger without a penalty this season.
Finally, Granato captured his second Big Ten Coach of the Year honor after leading the Badgers from a seventh-place finish in 2020 to the Big Ten regular-season title in 2021.
Granato becomes the first and only Badger coach to win conference coach of the year twice. He won the honor in 2017 in his first season behind the Wisconsin bench, when the program went from an eight-win season and last place in the Big Ten to 20 wins and a runner-up finish in the regular season and at the 2017 Big Ten Tournament.
The only other Badger head coach to win conference coach of the year was Bob Johnson in 1977.
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