The holiday break is nearly over, and as the second half begins, it's time to take a look at who will be up for the three major player awards in college hockey: The Hobey Baker Award (given to the most outstanding player in the nation), the Tim Taylor Award (given to the most outstanding rookie), and the Mike Richter Award (given to the most outstanding goaltender).

Today, we'll be talking about the Tim Taylor Award, which doesn't really carry the same cachet in the national college hockey conversation, even though it's been given out since 2006-07. However, I think it's increasingly important because college hockey has done a much better job of attracting high-end talent that goes high in the draft and, with greater frequency, those players are true freshmen at 18 or even in the draft year