Boston College freshman forward Hannah Bilka has been named the 2019-20 National Rookie of the Year, as announced on Friday by the Women’s Hockey Commissioners Association.
Bilka, who was also named the Hockey East Rookie of the Year as the league’s best first-year player, adds the national rookie award to a postseason awards resume that includes spots on the USCHO All-Rookie Team as well as the conference All-Rookie Team and the all-conference Second Team. She was also named the AHCA National Rookie of the Month for October and took home one Hockey East Player of the Week honor, one Rookie of the Week honor and was named the October Rookie of the Month.
The Coppell, Texas native led all rookies in the country in total points per game (1.13), assists per game (0.71) and shots on goal per game (4.06) during the regular season and tied for first in shots on goal (126). Bilka went on to finish the year with 37 points on 14 goals and 23 assists. Her 30 points in Hockey East play marked the ninth-highest total by a first-year player in league history.
Bilka had 10 multi-point games, three multi-goal games and five multi-assist outings on the year, with her 10 total multi-point games sitting second in the nation among rookies while her four three-plus point outings tied for first overall among rookies. Nine of her multi-point outings came in conference play to tie for third overall in the league and sit tops among first-year players. Bilka was one of seven rookies in the country to record a hat trick this season and one of 10 to pot a short-handed goal. The forward put together a nine-game point streak from Sept. 28 to Nov. 2 and recorded the program’s 10th-ever four-goal game in a win over Holy Cross on Oct. 3. The Eagles went 8-0-1 this season when she scored a goal and 14-4-3 when she had at least one point.
The National Rookie of the Year award was established in 2014, and previous winners include Minnesota’s Dani Cameranesi (2014), Wisconsin’s Annie Pankowski (2015), Minnesota’s Sarah Potomak (2016) and Robert Morris’ Jaycee Gebhard (2017), Daryl Watts (2018), and Sarah Fillier (2019). The ballot for the National Rookie of the Year award consists of the four Division I conference’s rookie of the year selections. Each program playing Division I women’s hockey receives one ballot with assistant coaches submitting their teams’ selections ranked in order (first, second, third, etc.).
