2021 Big Ten Coach of the Year Tony Granato
The Big Ten regular season champion Wisconsin Badger men’s hockey team, set to play in Tuesday night’s Big Ten Tournament championship game, made a haul when the All-Big Ten honors were handed out today.
Eight different Badgers were named either All-Big Ten, All-Big Ten Freshman or a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner.
The league’s scoring champion, Cole Caufield, was awarded the Big Ten Player of the Year. He becomes 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 honors 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 in 2020.
Caufield tallied 24 goals and 43 points in 24 Big Ten games, outpacing the next closest skater by 10 goals and 10 points. The 2019 Montreal Canadians first-round draft pick also set the Big Ten standard for goals in a conference season with the performance.
Other UW conference player of the year winners 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 Dylan 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.
Linus Weissbach was named to the All-Big Ten second team. Ty Pelton-Byce and Ty Emberson were both named All-Big Ten honorable mention.
Goaltender Cameron 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.
Wisconsin head coach Tony 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 finish 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.