Maine junior goaltender Jeremy Swayman has been awarded the 2020 Mike Richter Award, given annually to the best goaltender in NCAA Division I men’s hockey.
Swayman, also named to the CCM/AHCA All-American First Team and a Hobey Hat Trick Finalist, is the fourth player in Hockey East history to collect the award in its seven-year history.
Earlier this year, the Anchorage, Alaska, native was named the 2019-20 Hockey East Player of the Year, the first Maine goaltender to win Hockey East’s top individual honor and the first Black Bear since Spencer Abbott in 2011-12.
During the Hockey East regular season, Swayman led the league in saves (782), save percentage (.932) and tied for the lead in shutouts (3) while his 12 wins in Hockey East tied for second. The junior’s 782 saves in conference action is the 10th most of any goaltender in league history and the highest single-season total since 2010-11.
Swayman’s 2.27 goals-against average in league play was fourth-best among conference netminders.
Overall, Swayman carried a record of 18-11-5 and led the NCAA in saves with 1,099 stops. His save percentage of .939 ranked second among all goaltenders in the nation, while his 2.07 GAA was good for 15th in the country.
A 2017 fourth-round draft choice of the Boston Bruins who signed his entry level contract on March 17, Swayman had 25 games of at least 30 saves this season, including five outings with at least 40 stops.
The Black Bears’ backstop helped his team to the fourth-seed in the Hockey East tournament by posting three shutouts over their final six games of the regular season, including a 48-save shutout in a 1-0 win in the season finale.
Swayman is the first goalie to win Hockey East Player of the Year outright since Northeastern’s Brad Theissen in 2008-09 after Boston College’s Thatcher Demko and UMass Lowell’s Kevin Boyle split the award in 2015-16.
