Boston University freshman defenseman Cole Hutson has been named the recipient of the 2025 Tim Taylor Award, bestowed annually upon the best first-year player in NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey, the Hockey Commissioners’ Association announced today.

He is the sixth BU player to win this award and second straight. The others: goalie Kieran Millan in 2009, forwards Jack Eichel in 2015, Clayton Keller in 2017, Joel Farabee in 2019; and Macklin Celebrini in 2024. Hutson’s brother Lane was the ROY runner-up in 2023.

The award is voted on by the nation’s assistant coaches and is named for the former Yale University and U.S. Olympic Team head coach.

Hutson led his Terriers to the Frozen Four in St. Louis after receiving the NCAA Toledo Regional Most Outstanding Player award. The Hockey East Rookie of the Year and a Hockey East First Team All-Star, Hutson was also the MVP of Boston’s famed Beanpot Tournament, after totaling five points (3g, 2a), including two goals and two assists in the semifinals and the game-winning goal in the championship game. He enters the Frozen Four as points per game leader among all NCAA rookies and defensemen at 1.24, and he paces all NCAA rookies in points (46) and assists (32).

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 1976-2006, 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 University men’s ice 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 in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Hockey Commissioners Association sponsors this award which results from a ballot containing each NCAA Division I ice hockey conference’s Rookie of the Year. The runner-up for this year’s Tim Taylor Rookie of the Year Award was the University of North Dakota’s Sacha Boisvert, a freshman forward from Trois-Rivières, Quebec.