Eagles’ MacDonald earns Eddie Shore Award

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League introduced at the moment that Jacob MacDonald of the Colorado Eagles is the winner of the Eddie Shore Award because the AHL’s excellent defenseman for the 2024-25 season.

The award was voted on by coaches, gamers and members of the media representing every of the league’s 32 cities.

MacDonald rewrote the AHL document books in 2024-25 by scoring 31 targets, essentially the most ever by a defenseman within the league’s 89-year historical past. He added 24 assists to steer all AHL blueliners in scoring with 55 factors, equaling his profession excessive, and completed with a plus/minus score of plus-24 to rank tied for tenth in your entire league. MacDonald scored 13 instances on the facility play and tallied 5 game-winning targets for the Eagles, who led the AHL in offense (3.47 targets scored per recreation) and tied for fourth in protection (2.57 targets allowed per recreation) en path to capturing their first Pacific Division title this season.

A tenth-year professional from Portland, Ore., MacDonald was voted a First Group AHL All-Star in 2024-25, his third postseason All-Star choice after garnering First Group honors in 2017-18 and a Second Group nod in 2019-20. In 340 profession AHL video games, MacDonald has totaled 99 targets – tied for seventh-most ever by an AHL defenseman – and 149 assists for 248 factors. MacDonald, undrafted out of Cornell College, has additionally skated in 135 video games within the Nationwide Hockey League with Florida, Colorado and San Jose, registering 10 targets and 17 assists.

This award was first introduced by the AHL in 1958-59 in honor of the late Eddie Shore, a member of each the Hockey Corridor of Fame and the American Hockey League Corridor of Fame who’s extensively thought to be one in all hockey’s best defensemen. Shore gained a complete of seven Calder Cups in his profession, together with two as the final supervisor of the Buffalo Bisons and 5 because the longtime proprietor of the Springfield Indians. Earlier recipients of the Eddie Shore Award embrace Steve Kraftcheck (1959), Bob McCord (1961, ’67), Al Arbour (1965), Jim Morrison (1966), Noel Value (1970, ’72, ’76), Brian Engblom (1977), Terry Murray (1978, ’79), Dave Farrish (1982), Brad Shaw (1987), Dave Fenyves (1988, ’89), Eric Weinrich (1990), Darren Rumble (1997), John Slaney (2001, ’02), Niklas Kronwall (2005), Johnny Boychuk (2009), Mark Barberio (2012), Justin Schultz (2013), T.J. Brennan (2014, ’16), Jake Bean (2020), Jordan Gross (2022), Christian Wolanin (2023) and Kyle Capobianco (2024).

In operation since 1936, the American Hockey League continues to function the highest improvement league for all 32 Nationwide Hockey League groups. Almost 90 % of all gamers competing within the NHL are AHL graduates, and thru the years the American Hockey League has been house to greater than 100 honored members of the Hockey Corridor of Fame.

The winner of the 2024-25 Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award (excellent goaltender) can be introduced Wednesday.