March 11, 2010

Valery-Trabucco Tops Fan Balloting for Hobey Baker Award

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Union College senior forward Mario Valery-Trabucco has topped the first phase of fan balloting to help determine the winner of this year’s Hobey Baker Award.  Presented annually to college hockey’s top player, the 2010 Hobey recipient will be announced April 9 during the Frozen Four in Detroit, Mich. 

The first phase of the highly popular fan-voting phase concluded March 7, 2010 and those results were combined with the ballots submitted by all 58 Division I college hockey coaches to determine the Top Ten Hobey Baker candidates and will be formally announced on Thursday, March 18.

More than 175,000 votes were cast and here were the top five leaders in the fan balloting:

1. Mario Valery-Trabucco (Sr., F, Union), 20,473; 2. Brian Gibbons (Jr., F, Boston Col.), 17,290; 3. Bobby Butler (Sr., F, New Hampshire), 12,861; 4. Chris Kushneriuk (Jr., F, Robert Morris), 12,628; 5. Tomas Petruska (Sr., F, Bowling Green), 11,586.

Phase two of fan balloting will begin on March 19 from the list of Top Ten Hobey Baker finalists.  The fans’ vote accounts for a full 1 percent of the total ballot in each phase in selecting this year’s award recipient.

Visit the Hobey Baker website: hobeybaker.com.  Click on the Vote for Hobey Baker icon and follow the prompts to make your selection from this year’s outstanding crop of college hockey players.

Key Hobey Baker announcement dates for 2010 include:

  • Top Ten list of candidates:  March 18
  • Hobey Hat Trick of three finalists:  March 31
  • Hobey Baker Award winner:  April 9

The 2010 Hobey Baker Award winner will be announced from a field of three Hobey Hat Trick finalists on Friday, April 9, 2010 during the NCAA Frozen Four Championships in Detroit, Mich.  The 30th annual award announcement honoring college hockey’s top player will be televised live during prime time on ESPNU at 7:00 pm ET.  For more info on the Hobey Baker Award or to access the Hobey logo, please visit hobeybaker.com.