{"id":249079,"date":"2026-04-02T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/249079\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:00:08","slug":"san-jose-sharks-prospect-eric-pohlkamp-named-hobey-baker-award-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/249079\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks prospect Eric Pohlkamp named Hobey Baker Award finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks prospect defenseman Eric Pohlkamp<\/a> has been named one of the three finalists<\/a> for the Hobey Baker Award, the top individual honor in U.S. college hockey.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Pohlkamp, a junior for Frozen Four-bound Denver University, is the NCAA\u2019s top scoring defenseman<\/a> this season with 18 goals and 21 assists in 41 games for the Pioneers.<\/p>\n

The other two finalists for the award are Minnesota-Duluth forward Max Plante<\/a>, a second-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2024, and TJ Hughes,<\/a> an undrafted senior at Michigan.<\/p>\n

The Hobey Baker Award winner will be announced on April 10 in Las Vegas, site of the Frozen Four.<\/p>\n

Macklin Celebini won the Hobey Baker Award<\/a> as a 17-year-old in 2024 after his freshman season at Boston University, more than two months before he was taken first overall by the Sharks at the NHL Draft in Las Vegas. Celebrini entered Thursday as the NHL\u2019s fourth-leading scorer<\/a> with 105 points in 73 games.<\/p>\n

Pohlkamp, who the Sharks selected in the fifth round in 2023, was named one of the 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award on March 18. At the time, Pohlkamp led the nation with 185 shots and had been named the National Collegiate Hockey Conference\u2019s Offensive Defenseman of the Year.<\/p>\n

Pohlkamp, listed at 5-foot-11 and 210 pounds, also led the Pioneers with 77 blocked shots.<\/a><\/p>\n

The three finalists, known as the Hobey Baker Hat Trick,<\/a> were selected by a 30-member selection committee. Criteria for the award include: displaying outstanding skills in all phases of the game; strength of character on and off the ice; sportsmanship and scholastic achievements.<\/p>\n

Denver advanced to the Frozen Four<\/a> last week by beating Cornell 5-0 in the first round and top-seeded Western Michigan 6-2 in the regional final. Denver, led by Vancouver Canucks defenseman Zeev Buium, won the national championship in 2024 and advanced to the national semifinals last year.<\/p>\n

Pohlkamp took over from Buium as the Pioneers\u2019 leader on the blue line this season.<\/p>\n

In December, Pohlkamp, a native of Baxter, Minnesota, played for the U.S. Selects team at the Spengler Cup tournament in Switzerland. The team was made up of NCAA players.<\/p>\n

Denver plays Michigan in the national semifinals on April 9, with the winner playing either Wisconsin or North Dakota in the final two days later.<\/p>\n

Pohlkamp stood out during the Sharks\u2019 development camp<\/a> last summer, and said afterward that he wanted to begin his professional career after Denver\u2019s season ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my goal,\u201d Pohlkamp said in July. \u201cYou want to have a really good season next year, and I\u2019m gonna fill Zeev Buium\u2019s spot, so I\u2019m gonna have some big shoes to fill. I\u2019m super excited for the challenge, and I can\u2019t wait to get back out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharks general manager Mike Grier was impressed by Pohlkamp during the camp,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been around him a couple of years now,\u201d Grier said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a ton of energy and personality to him, and you can even see it on the ice. He\u2019s taking charge of his team a little bit out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks prospect defenseman Eric Pohlkamp has been named one of the three finalists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3523,104078,111096,88,90,89,98],"class_list":{"0":"post-249079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-eric-pohlkamp","9":"tag-hobey-baker-award","10":"tag-hobey-hat-trick","11":"tag-san-jose","12":"tag-san-jose-headlines","13":"tag-san-jose-news","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}