On Wednesday morning, the Hockey East Association announced its yearly award winners, which included Boston College forward Ryan Leonard winning the conference’s Player of the Year award for the 2024-25 season!
The 2024-2025 #HockeyEast Player of the Year:
Ryan Leonard | @BC_MHockey
As voted on by the head coaches of the Association ️ pic.twitter.com/vOSYme9YvZ
— Hockey East (@hockey_east) March 19, 2025
Leonard has had a phenomenal sophomore season on the Heights. He leads the nation in total goals with 29 and game-winning goals with 9. He also finished in the top-3 nationally in total plus-minus while leading a Boston College team that ran away with the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, clinching it before the conference tournament even began. Leonard’s return to the Heights after he could have gone to the NHL last season has proven to be incredibly impactful, and he’s a huge reason that the Eagles are primed for another Frozen Four run. It remains to be seen what the voting for the Hobey Baker award will look like, but we are expecting that Leonard will be a top contender for that national honor as well.
Boston College also had nominated individuals in the Hockey East Coach of the Year (Greg Brown) and Rookie of the Year (James Hagens) categories, but those awards went to UConn’s Mike Cavanaugh and BU’s Cole Hutson, respectively. And Boston College goaltender Jacob Fowler was nominated alongside Leonard for the Player of the Year award.
After being upset by Northeastern in the Hockey East quarterfinals, Boston College now has plenty of time to prepare and work on their flaws in advance of the NCAA tournament. BC will start out in Manchester, NH against the tournament’s 16-seed on Friday March 28th.