The American Hockey League has named the individual team winners of the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year awards for the 2025-26 season. Clubs selected these players for their outstanding community and charitable contributions. An overall winner for the Yanick Dupré Memorial Award will be chosen soon.
Springfield, Mass. — The American Hockey League announced the team winners of its IOA/American Specialty Man of the Year awards on Tuesday. Each club nominated one player who demonstrated exceptional involvement in local communities and charitable efforts throughout the season. Representatives from IOA/American Specialty and the AHL will select the league-wide recipient of the 2025-26 Yanick Dupré Memorial Award from this group in the coming weeks. The award honors the late Yanick Dupré, an AHL All-Star in 1995 who played four seasons with the Hershey Bears and appeared in 35 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers. He passed away in 1997 at age 24 after battling leukemia for 16 months. This year's honorees include: Chase Wouters of the Abbotsford Canucks (his fourth selection), Seth Griffith of the Bakersfield Condors (first), Jorian Donovan of the Belleville Senators (first), Matthew Maggio of the Bridgeport Islanders (first), Lucas Ciona of the Calgary Wranglers (second), Ben Steeves of the Charlotte Checkers (second), Justin Robidas of the Chicago Wolves (first), Owen Sillinger of the Cleveland Monsters (first), Max McCormick of the Coachella Valley Firebirds (first), Jayson Megna of the Colorado Eagles (second), Amadeus Lombardi of the Grand Rapids Griffins (first), Jackson Dorrington of the Hartford Wolf Pack (first), Mitch McLain of the Henderson Silver Knights (first), Grant Cruikshank of the Hershey Bears (first), Cal Petersen of the Iowa Wild (first), Lucas Condotta of the Laval Rocket (fourth), Carson Bjarnason of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (first), Tyrel Bauer of the Manitoba Moose (second), Oasiz Wiesblatt of the Milwaukee Admirals (first), Jacob Doty of the Ontario Reign (first), Michael DiPietro of the Providence Bruins (first), Riley Fiddler-Schultz of the Rochester Americans (first), Brett Seney of the Rockford IceHogs (first), Matthew Phillips of the San Diego Gulls (first), Patrick Giles of the San Jose Barracuda (first), Kale Kessy of the Springfield Thunderbirds (third), Brandon Halverson of the Syracuse Crunch (first), Curtis McKenzie of the Texas Stars (fourth), William Villeneuve of the Toronto Marlies (first), Andrew Agozzino of the Tucson Roadrunners (second), Ryan Schmelzer of the Utica Comets (first), and Phil Kemp of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (first).