A couple of Philadelphia Flyers prospects have been named as finalists for college hockey’s top individual prize, the Hobey Baker Award.
Center Cole Knuble out of the University of Notre Dame and winger Alex Bump from Western Michigan University, have been listed among the dozens and dozens of names nominated from each individual school as finalists for the Hobey Baker.
Knuble is a 20-year-old center who was selected by the Flyers in the fourth round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft and has certainly impressed in his sophomore season. While he managed to score 20 points in 36 games during his freshman year, Knuble bumped up that production to nine goals and 25 points through the first 20 games of the year for Notre Dame. He is the only player on his team that has been able to average a point per game.
That level of dragging his entire team’s offense makes sense as Notre Dame is currently sitting with an 8-15-1 record on the season and only Penn State has fewer points among all teams in the Big Ten. Notre Dame has recently earned some surprising wins over Michigan and the University of Minnesota — over the four recent games against those big schools, the team has a 2-2-0 record but Knuble has scored two goals and seven points — but they are still sitting pretty at the bottom.
Moving over to Alex Bump, the 21-year-old winger is also in his sophomore season but with 38 points in 36 games during his freshman year, and then now “just” a point-per-game with 20 points in so many games, he could be a longshot. But the Prior Lake, Minn. native is taking a whole lot more offensive responsibility this season. Last year he scored just 14 goals in those 36 games, but so far this season he has nine in 20. And like Knuble, Bump is leading his team in scoring and is the only player on Western Michigan that is scoring a point per game.
But, Western Michigan just keep on winning. The Broncos are 15-4-1 overall on the season and in the NCHC, only Arizona State sits above them in the standings. Led by Bump, somehow, Western Michigan is sitting pretty above the reigning national champions, Denver.
Both Knuble and Bump will most certainly not last long as the list of players up for the Hobey Baker begins to shrink, but it is a good sign that the Flyers have two very sold college hockey products in their system. And it wouldn’t shock anyone over here if both of them decided to turn professional and sign their contracts to suit up for an interesting 2025-26 Lehigh Valley Phantoms team next season. Maybe less so the younger Knuble, but Bump should be ready to take the next step and potentially even battle for a surprise spot in the Flyers lineup (depending on future transactions and the look of the roster at training camp).
Not too shabby, boys.
