The 21-year old rookie made his NHL debut on Nov. 8 at Washington. His first point came on Nov. 17 with a goal at St. Louis. Perhaps the highlight of Labanc's season came on Dec. 23 vs. division-rival Edmonton where he scored twice, including the overtime game-winner.
Labanc became the first player drafted in the sixth round from his 2014 NHL Draft class to appear in an NHL contest, and the third player drafted after the third round of his draft class to score an NHL tally. He currently has the second-most goals, assists, points and games played of any player drafted after the third round of the 2014 NHL Draft.
The five-foot-eleven, 185-pound native of Brooklyn, NY was drafted by Sharks in the sixth round (171st overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft.
PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD:
2015-16 Joonas Donskoi
2014-15 Melker Karlsson
2013-14 Matt Nieto & Tomas Hertl
2012-13 Matt Irwin
2011-12 Andrew Desjardins
2010-11 Logan Couture
2009-10 Jason Demers
2008-09 Tomas Plihal
2007-08 Torrey Mitchell
2006-07 Marc-Edouard Vlasic
2005-06 Milan Michalek
2003-04 Tom Preissing
2002-03 Jim Fahey
2001-02 Matt Bradley
2000-01 Evgeni Nabokov
1999-00 Brad Stuart
1998-99 Alexander Korolyuk
1997-98 Patrick Marleau, Marco Sturm, Andrei Zyuzin
1996-97 Stephen Guolla
1995-96 Marcus Ragnarsson
1994-95 Jeff Friesen
