Who will win the 2023 Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's best player, and who should?

For the first time since 2019, we have a Hobey Hat Trick without a single goaltender.

And for the second time in three years, it feels quite likely that a freshman will win the award. However, it must be said that the voting for the Hobey Baker Award has been particularly fraught this season.

Let's first take a quick look at the three finalists, all of which are from the Big Ten and two of which play on the same line.

These individual counting stats include some time-on-ice and in-depth data from InStat:

As you can see, there's a bit of a gap in terms of production between what Adam Fantilli and Logan Cooley, who are Nos. 1 and 2 in the country in scoring, respectively, and what Matthew Knies, who's tied for 18th, did.

And this is the big controversy this year: A component of the Hobey Baker Aw