Boston College Women’s Hockey Forward Named Hockey East Co-Rookie of the Year

After an impressive debut season, Ava Thomas was one of two players named Hockey East’s Co-Rookie of the Year.

Ava Thomas fires a shot towards the net against Northeastern in the final women's hockey game at Matthew's Arena. | John Sexton

The season-end accolades continued to roll in for Boston College’s standout freshman Ava Thomas as the forward was named Pro Ambitions Co-Rookie of the Year. The conference had previously named Thomas a unanimous selection to both the All-Rookie and First-Team All-Stars after finishing as the runner-up for the conference’s scoring title.

Across 24 conference games, Thomas led the Hockey East with 19 assists and finished second with 14 goals and 33 points. The forward’s 5 game winning goals, including an overtime winner on the road against No. 5 Northeastern, were the most of any player in Hockey East play. Nationally, Thomas finished in the top ten in scoring with 46 points in 35 games, the third most of any freshman. Her 27 assists also ranked third among freshmen nationwide and placed her 11th on the overall ranking. No player in the country fired more shots on target than Thomas’ 281, a rate of over eight per game.

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— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) February 15, 2026

Thomas shared the award with Northeastern’s Stryker Zablocki who joined Thomas as a member of both the All-Rookie and First-Team. Zablocki won the conference’s scoring title with a league best 17 goals and 34 points. Her scoring title was the first by a freshman since former Boston College forward Daryl Watts topped the conference in scoring during the 2017-18 season. That season Watts would go on to win the Patty Kazmaier award that season after leading the NCAA in scoring with 82 points on a nation best 42 goals and 40 assists. Zablocki was the Rookie of the Month in both November and January as she helped lead the Huskies to a Hockey East regular season championship and a spot in the conference title game. 

The pair joined Connecticut netminder Tia Chan as finalists for the Cammi Granato Award, given to the conference’s top player. Zablocki was named the award’s outright winner, making her the ninth Husky to win the award and the fifth in the last seven seasons, including 2026 Olympic medalists Alina Mueller and Aerin Frankel, who shared the award in 2020-21.

Earlier in the week Thomas was named the Hockey East Rookie of the Month for February after posting nine points and peppering the net with 76 shots, the most of any player in the country. Previously she won the award in January and was the Player of the Month for October, her first full month of collegiate hockey. In addition to Thomas’ Rookie of the Month selection, Olivia Maffeo was named February’s Defender of the Month. The sophomore led all blueliners in the conference with eight points in eight games and led the position group nationally with five goals, including a pair on the power play, in the same stretch.