UMD Athletics

BEFORE UMD: Is the reigning USA Hockey Junior Player of the Year Award recipient  … joined 2011-12 Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Jack Connolly as the only other Bulldog recruit to collar that prestigious honor  … closed the books on his second year of deployment with the Green Bay Gamblers in 2011-12 by helping lead that franchise to the 2012 Clark Cup playoff title ...  paced all USHL blueliners in goals with 15 during the 2011-12 regular season and ranked fifth in scoring (37 points in 54 games) en route to being selected the league’s Defenseman of the Year … also tied for third overall in the USHL in plus/minus rating with a plus-35 figure for Green Bay, winners of the  2011-12 Anderson Cup (regular season league champion) … was invited to the  National Junior Evaluation Camp this past August in Lake Placid, NY., where he auditioned for a spot on the U.S. National Junior Team that will compete in the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship ... skated for the U.S. Select Team in the 2011 World Junior A Challenge … enlisted his services with the USHL in 2010-11 and made his presence felt from the get-go … collected six goals and eight assists for 14 points in 51 games as a Gambler rookie …  was taken in the third round (83rd selection overall) of the 2011 National Hockey League Entry Draft by the Anaheim Ducks … played three years of varsity hockey at Duluth East High School before departing for the junior ranks following his junior year … scored five goals and added 19 helpers for 24 points in his farewell prep season (2009-10) and was an Associated Press All-State honorable mention honoree … qualified for three Minnesota State Class AA tennis tournaments during his five years of competition in that sport at Duluth East.

PERSONAL: Born Andrew Philip Welinski on April 27, 1993 in Duluth ... is the son of Mark (a one-time UMD tennis letterman and  former Bulldog women’s tennis coach and current UMD employee) and Julie Welinski (a UMD alumnae) ... has one older sister (Megan, who will graduate from UMD this December) ... is an undeclared major at UMD.