Baines Named Winner Of AHL s Fred T. Hunt Award
Published on April 29, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL) News Release
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The American Hockey League announced that Ajay Baines, who began his career in the ECHL, of the Iowa Chops has been named the 2008-09 winner of the Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award as the player who best exemplifies the qualities of sportsmanship, determination and dedication to hockey as determined in a vote of coaches, players and members of the media.
The ECHL has had affiliations with 20 or more teams in the AHL the last eight years and in the past seven seasons there have been more ECHL players called up to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined. In his first professional season in 1999-2000, the 31 year old led Greenville in plus-minus rating with +22 and tied for the team lead with five game-winning goals while finishing third with 24 goals and fourth with 31 assists and 55 points in 67 games. Baines, who was diagnosed with Type I diabetes as a teenager, won a Calder Cup championship with Hamilton in 2007, scoring the clinching goal in the finals. He has played more than 600 games in the AHL over the past nine seasons. He has appeared in more than 70 games seven times including this season when he played 77 games.
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