Andrew Poturalski Named AHL's Most Valuable Player
Andrew Poturalski Named AHL's Most Valuable Player
San Jose Barracuda forward Andrew Poturalski won the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL’s most valuable player Friday.
Add one more piece of hardware to long-time AHL star Andrew Poturalski’s ever-growing collection.
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Signed by the San Jose Sharks as a free agent last summer, the playmaking forward revitalized their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda, with another one of his standout seasons. On Friday he took the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL’s most valuable player for the first time in his 10-year pro career. Poturalski (30-43-73 in 59 games) edged out Matěj Blümel of Texas and Bakersfield’s Seth Griffith by one point to take his third AHL scoring title.
After finishing last in the Pacific Division and third-from-last overall in the AHL last season, adding Poturalski helped take the Barracuda to the Calder Cup Playoffs this season for the first time since 2019 (they also participated in an abbreviated postseason during the pandemic-disrupted 2020-21 campaign). Poturalski has been out since March 28 with an injury and missed Game 1 of San Jose’s first-round series with the Ontario Reign, a 2-0 win Thursday. The Barracuda are attempting to win their first round since reaching the Western Conference Finals in 2017.
In signing Poturalski, who played for Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky when the two were with the Carolina Hurricanes organization, they were getting a winner. Poturalski won the Calder Cup in 2019 with the Charlotte Checkers and again in 2022 with the Chicago Wolves. He also went to the Calder Cup Finals with the Coachella Valley Firebirds the past two seasons. In 2023, he made an expedited return from a serious lower-body injury to return during the Calder Cup Playoffs and help to lead the Firebirds to series wins against both the Calgary Wranglers and Milwaukee Admirals. He captained the Wolves to their 2022 title and was named the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy winner as the most valuable player of the 2019 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Poturalski also was named a First Team AHL All-Star this season and also won regular-season scoring titles with the San Diego Gulls in 2020-21 and Chicago the following season. In 527 regular-season AHL games, he has 161-332-493 and is positioned to crack the league’s top-100 all-time scoring list next season.
Poturalski is the latest award winner this week. Laval Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s top coach for the second time in his career. In his first season with the Rocket, he took them to the league’s regular-season title.
Among players, Jacob MacDonald of the Colorado Eagles took the Eddie Shore Award as the league’s top defenseman. He set a league record for defenseman with a 31-goal season. He also lead all AHL blueliners in points (55) and power-play goals (13) as the Eagles took the Western Conference regular-season title. Michael DiPietro took the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s top goaltender. Starring in net for the Providence Bruins, he went 26-8-5 | 2.05 | .927 in 40 games. Both DiPietro and MacDonald also were named AHL First Team All-Star selections.
Texas forward Justin Hryckowian was named the Dudley (Red) Garrett Memorial Award winner as the AHL’s top rookie. His 60 points (22-38-60) in 67 games topped all rookies. He was also chosen for the AHL All-Rookie Team.
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