Puckato's picks

On Tuesday, the WCHA announced some of its individual awards, with the Mavericks' Mike Hastings winning Coach of the Year and Max Coatta winning Student-Athlete of the Year. Media members used to get a ballot for postseason awards, but that went away when the new WCHA was formed. Now, it's just the coaches who vote.

So, for what it's worth, here's how I probably would have voted for the WCHA awards:

Player of the year: This officially gets announced on Thursday, and the candidates are Tuesday's player award winners (offensive, defenseman, goaltender, rookie), which is an odd way to do your finalists. Anyway, I debated between Northern Michigan's Troy Loggins and Lake Superior State's Diego Cuglietta. It was really close, but I'll give Loggins the nod as the top point guy and goal scorer.

Rookie of the year: To me, this is a no-brainer, although it's not who the coaches picked. Ferris State defenseman Cooper Zech had a great year, leading all rookies in scoring and doing it from the blue line. He was also only plus-3 on a ninth-place team. Minnesota State goaltender Dryden McKay is the clear choice here. His numbers (.941, 1.35 in conference play) speak for themselves, and his position was MSU's biggest question mark going into the season.

Coach of the year: Tough call here. Hastings won it with a team that was the favorite going into the season, but also one that had no returning goaltenders and needed to replace two 43-point and an All-American defenseman. Still, I was leaning toward Damon Whitten of Lake Superior State. Although, I don't necessarily always vote for the coach of the so-called surprise team (which was how Troy Jutting won two COYs), the Lakers went from ninth place and missing the playoffs to fourth place and home ice for the first round.

All-WCHA
FIRST TEAM
F Troy Loggins, Northern Michigan
F Diego Cuglietta, Lake Superior State
F Marc Michaelis, Minnesota State
D Philip Beaulieu, Northern Michigan
D Justin Baudry, Bemidji State
G Dryden McKay, Minnesota State

SECOND TEAM
F Parker Tuomie, Minnesota State
F Brandon Kruse, Bowling Green
F Anthony Nellis, Lake Superior State
D Ian Scheid, Minnesota State
D Connor Mackey, Minnesota State
G Atte Tolvanen, Northern Michigan

THIRD TEAM
F Adam Rockwood, Northern Michigan
F Max Johnson, Bowling Green
F Max Humitz, Lake Superior State
D Alec Rauhauser, Bowling Green
D Colin Saccoman, Lake Superior State
G Ryan Bednard, Bowling Green

ROOKIE TEAM
F Julian Napravnik, Minnesota State
F Brian Halonen, Michigan Tech
F Ashton Calder, Lake Superior State
D Cooper, Zech, Ferris State
D Chris Jandric, Alaska
G Dryden McKay, Minnesota State