TAMPA, Fla. — Michigan freshman forward Adam Fantilli has been named the recipient of the 2023 Tim Taylor Award, given annually upon the best first-year player in NCAA Division I men’s hockey, the Hockey Commissioners’ Association announced Friday night.
He is the third Michigan player to win this award, the others being Thomas Bordeleau in 2021 and Kyle Connor in 2016. The award is voted on by the nation’s assistant coaches and is named for the former Yale and U.S. Olympic Team head coach.
A native of Nobleton, Ont., Fantilli had 29 goals and 35 assists for 64 points in 35 games entering the Frozen Four, leading the nation in almost every offensive category, including points per game, goals per game and assists per game. His 29th goal came in the NCAA Regionals, knotting Penn State at 1-1 in the third period. The Wolverines went on to win the game, 2-1 in overtime, to advance to the Frozen Four in Tampa.
He scored his 30th goal Thursday night as Michigan lost 5-2 to Quinnipizc in the Frozen Four semifinals.
Tim Taylor, for whom the award is named, spent 28 seasons at Yale and became the school’s winningest head coach as he collected 337 victories. His tenure spanned from 1976 to 2006, while taking two years on leave to coach the U.S. Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Team as an assistant coach in 1984 and as the head coach in 1994. Taylor was captain of the Harvard men’s hockey team before he graduated in 1963. He began his coaching career at his alma mater, serving as an assistant coach on the Crimson staff under Ralph “Cooney” Weiland and Bill Cleary before beginning his time with the Bulldogs.
The Hockey Commissioners Association sponsors this award which results from a ballot containing each NCAA Division I hockey conference’s rookie of the year.
The runner-up for this year’s Tim Taylor Rookie of the Year Award was Boston University freshman defenseman Lane Hutson.
