ECAC Hockey announced two women’s hockey awards Tuesday as Yale junior Emma Seitz has been named best defenseman and best forward is Cornell junior Gillis Frechette.
Seitz is the first Yale skater in program history to claim this award after she put together the best season of her Bulldog career, registering 19 points from the blue line, including 13 in league contests.
Her best stretch of the year came in mid-November when she won back-to-back ECAC Hockey Player of the Week honors after posting nine points in four games. As good as she was offensively, Seitz was just as solid on the defensive side of the puck, ranking second in the conference with a plus-17 on-ice rating.
Though voting for awards takes place at the conclusion of the regular-season, Seitz continued to show her value as one of the best players in the league during last week’s quarterfinal series, scoring four goals and dishing out an assist in the three-game series win.
Frechette is the fourth Big Red skater to receive the honor since the awards inception in 2008, and the first since Brianne Jenner in 2015.
Frechette led ECAC Hockey skaters in scoring during league games by a wide margin, recording 36 of her 40 total points against ECAC Hockey opponents. She found the back of the net 10 times and dished out 26 assists, finishing with a plus-25 on-ice rating for the Big Red.
She was consistent throughout the year, finding the scoresheet in 18 of 22 league contests, which included 12 multi-point performances. Three of her 10 goals were game winners, which was good for second in the conference.
Frechette’s best stretch of the season came in early February, when she went three straight games recording multiple points. She notched four (two goals, two assists) on Feb. 1 against St. Lawrence, two assists on Feb. 5 against Harvard, and three (goal, two assists) the following night against Colgate.
