Press Release

Quinnipiac University's Ethan Wyttenbach Is 2026 Tim Taylor National Rookie Of The Year

Second Bobcat to Earn Top Rookie Honors

Friday, April 10, 2026

Quinnipiac University freshman forward Ethan Wyttenbach (Roslyn, NY) has been named the recipient of the 2026 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 second QU player to win this award after Sam Anas, the 2014 recipient.

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.

Wyttenbach’s memorable first-year campaign saw him finish as the nation’s leading point-getter with 59 on the year, totaling 25 goals and 34 assists. This included a rivalry-night hat trick against league foe Yale and the icing goal to secure an NCAA Regional Semifinal win against Providence. The 2026 ECAC Rookie of the Year finished tied for the Quinnipiac Division I single-season record with the 59 points, setting a new program freshman scoring record in the process. Also a unanimous First-Team All-ECAC selection, Wyttenbach finished the year with a point in 34 games, the most in the country, and 17 multi-point outings, the second-most in NCAA Division I men’s hockey.”

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 Penn State’s Gavin McKenna, a freshman forward from Whitehorse, YT.