CHN All-Decade Team: The 2010s

CHN Staff Report

What is a decade? Jan. 1, 2010 to Dec. 31, 2019, as the commoners define it? Jan. 1, 2011 to Dec. 31, 2020, as the pedants define it?

Really, a decade is just an arbitrary 10-year span. And in sports, we have seasons, not years.

The calendar turned a few months back and closed the book on the previous decade. College hockey's decade hasn't quite finished, however. The 2019-20 season won't end until April 11 at Little Caeser's Arena in Detroit.

So here we are.

The 10-season era that began in the fall of 2010 and with Minnesota-Duluth capturing its first national championship that year, may end with the Bulldogs completing the first national championship three-peat since the only three-peat — Michigan from 1951 through 1953.

Along the way, nothing has defined college hockey quite like change. The leagues change faster than ever. The players do, too. The growth of college hockey as genuine incubator for NHL stars has injected more talent into the college game than ever before. It's also added even more roster turnover to a sport whose players have a clearly defined shelf life.

It's resulted in some individual seasons and careers that served as the springboards for equally remarkable professional tenures. In our list, we featured a few players who redefined their program's trajectories, and others who bolstered their school's already proud traditions. Longevity mattered here, but is not absolute.

The hardest part, as always, was deciding who didn't make the cut. There are major apologies due to Michigan's Kyle Connor, Denver defensemen Joey LaLeggia and Will Butcher, Union's Shayne Gostisbehere (who probably had the Game of the Decade), and a mess of other players who spent the decade torturing their opponents and entertaining us all.

So, here it is, The College Hockey News All-Decade Team for the 2010s:

First Team

F: Johnny Gaudreau, Boston College, 2011-2014

Dazzling. Gaudreau's three-year reign of terror defined in one word. He introduced himself to the nation in the 2012 national championship game, toe-dragging and backhanding the Eagles to a two-goal lead in the game's final moments. He followed that with a 51-point sophomore season before a decade-high 80-point (36 goals and 44 assists) season as a junior, leading BC to the Frozen Four. No player since has dominated like that for three seasons, given the nature of early departures.

F: Jack Eichel, Boston University, 2014-15

No player defined the one-and-done phenomenon quite like Jack Eichel. The current captain of the Buffalo Sabres spent one season with Boston University, scoring 26 goals and adding 45 assists for the Terriers who won a Beanpot and Hockey East double before a devastating loss in the national championship game. That doesn't even tell the whole story. He won faceoffs, played both ends of the ice like a veteran, and dominated everything. Michigan's Kyle Connor was another one-and-done who had a spectacular season (we named him our 2016 Player of the Year, one year after Eichel), but to make the All-Decade team with just one season under your belt, that year has to be historic. Eichel's dominant season redefined what an 18-year-old can do in college hockey.

F: Jimmy Vesey, Harvard, 2013-2016

It's not often that a player's best season is the one before he won the Hobey Baker award. Vesey was instrumental in Harvard's resurgence in the second half of the 2010s, scoring 32 times as a junior in 2014-15 and 24 times as a senior a year later. He was third in goals in the decade and a two-time all-CHN First Team selection. The 2016 Hobey Baker award winner left Harvard with 80 career goals in his four seasons. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, however, was bringing Harvard back to national relevance.

D: Jimmy Schuldt, St. Cloud State, 2015-2019

The third-leading scorer among defensemen in the decade, Schuldt, a two-time all-American and two-time All-CHN pick, graduated from St. Cloud State as one of the program's most decorated players. He finished his career third in the decade for scoring by a defenseman and regularly tormented the best attackers in the country. Schuldt improved each season, culminating in a dominant senior year and a spot in the Hobey Hat Trick. Only our next player's transcendent season prevented him from becoming SCSU's second Hobey Baker winner.

D: Cale Makar, Massachusetts, 2017-2019

UMass' coaching change after the 2015-16 season meant Cale Maker easily could've re-opened his recruitment. Certainly, many of the nation's finest programs would've lined up to sign the No. 4 overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. The Minutemen needed Makar, though. And he made it his personal mission to drag the program from its disappointing past into the future while learning from Greg Carvel and his staff. After a promising freshman season, Makar put together the best year by a defenseman in the decade (16-33—49) in leading UMass to its first Hockey East regular-season championship and the Frozen Four. The Hobey Baker award was a formality by the time it was announced.

G: Connor Hellebuyck, Massachusetts-Lowell, 2012-14

Since Norm Bazin became UMass-Lowell's head coach, goaltenders have flourished. None, however, reached quite the level of Hellebuyck in his two years with the River Hawks. He left after his sophomore season with as many career shutouts (12) as losses and earned the 2013-14 Mike Richter Award. He holds the highest single-season save percentage mark for the decade (.952) and the highest overall save percentage (.946). He led the River Hawks to a Hockey East double and the Frozen Four in 2013 and the Hockey East postseason title in 2014.

Second Team

F: Brock Boeser, North Dakota, 2015-2017

Boeser was fortunate as a freshman. He played next to one of the most underrated players of the decade, Drake Caggiula, and a gifted passer, Nick Schmaltz. The "CBS Line" carried North Dakota to its eighth national championship in 2015-16. Boeser led the way. His dominant freshman season yielded a 27-33—60 line — the highest point total for an NCHC player in the decade. Caggiula and Schmaltz played major roles, but it was Boeser doing the bulk of the damage. His sophomore season without his running mates didn't come with the same degree of dominance, but he remained one of the nation's premier scoring threats. Boeser missed six games and still averaged more than a point a game (16-18—34 in 32 games).

F: Jack Connolly, Minnesota-Duluth, 2010-2012

In 83 games during the decade, the talisman of UMD's first national championship team (2011) averaged 1.4 points per game — the fourth-highest total of the decade. One of the top play-makers of the decade, Connolly went from a good player in his first two seasons to a dominant one as an upperclassman. In his final two seasons at UMD, he scored 38 goals and added 81 assists. His Hobey Baker win in 2012 came in one of the most contested votes of the decade, but Connolly's 20-goal, 40-assist season won out and punctuated one of the great careers in UMD history. Only two of years were in the decade, but it was still enough. He embodies "college hockey player," with he and Vesey as the only four-year skaters on this list.

F: Ryan Donato, F, Harvard, 2015-2018

Hamstrung by Ivy League scheduling and representing the United States at the 2018 Olympic Games, Ryan Donato appeared only 97 games in his three years at Harvard. In those games, he emerged one of the nation's premier offensive talents and goal scorers. He scored 21 goals in Harvard's best season of the decade, during which it ended an 18-year drought in the Beanpot, won ECAC regular-season and playoff championships, and reached the Frozen Four. He returned for his junior season and scored 26 goals in 29 games. He left Harvard after three seasons, fourth for the decade in goals in per game, behind only Vesey, Gaudreau and Reilly Smith.

D: Justin Schultz, D, Wisconsin, 2010-12

Only two of Schultz' three seasons came during the 2010s. Luckily for him, they were his two best years in Madison. Schultz owns two of the top five highest point totals for defensemen in a season with 18-29—47 as a sophomore in 2010-11 and 16-28—44 in 2011-12. One of only five players to receive All-CHN First Team honors twice in the decade, Schultz was also a two-time Hobey Baker finalist.

D: Brian Dumoulin, D, Boston College, 2010-12

Two of Dumolin’s three stellar seasons came in the 2010s and both landed him on All-CHN Teams. He was the horse on the blue line behind the gifted BC teams of the early part of the decade. He had 10 goals and 51 assists from 2010 through 2012 and played major minutes for one of the decade’s best teams — BC’s 2012 national title squad. The names most remember from that team — Gaudreau, Kreider, Hayes and more — drew most of the praise. Dumolin was the backbone, though. Few controlled the defensive zone like he did in his years at the Heights.

G: Hunter Shepard, G, Minnesota-Duluth, 2016-2020

The last two seasons have ended with piles on Hunter Shepard as UMD celebrated national championships. The only active player on the All-Decade teams, Shepard's argument comes down to being a good goaltender who has been nearly perfect in two consecutive national championship runs. He is one of only three goaltenders to start on two national champions in the last 25 years. Earlier this season, Shepard broke the NCAA's all-time consecutive starts record.