FOUR OJHL GRADUATES WIN AHL MAN OF YEAR AWARDS
Four former Ontario Junior Hockey League players have been named individual team winners of the IOA/American Specialty American Hockey League Man of the Year awards, the AHL announced today.
Players from each of the AHL’s 31 teams were selected by their respective clubs for their outstanding contributions to the local community and charitable organizations during the 2019-20 season.
The former OJHL players are: Jake Walman (Toronto Jr. Canadiens) of the San Antonio Rampage, Derek Sheppard (Pickering Panthers, Aurora Tigers) of the Charlotte Checkers and a pair of former St. Michael’s Buzzers, Jake Evans of the Laval Rocket and Mike Liambis of the Iowa Wild.
From the list of finalists, representatives from IOA/American Specialty and the AHL will choose the winner of the 2019-20 Yanick Dupre Memorial Award. The AHL’s annual Man of the Year award is named after the late Yanick Dupre, who died in 1997 at the age of 24 following a 16-month battle with leukemia. Dupre, an AHL All-Star in 1995, played four seasons with the Hershey Bears and also skated in 35 National Hockey League games with the Philadelphia Flyers.
