AHL alumni claim top NHL awards
Published on June 11, 2004 under American Hockey League (AHL) News Release
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. ... Martin St. Louis and Martin Brodeur headlined a list of American Hockey League graduates who were honored by the National Hockey League at its annual awards ceremony on Thursday night in Toronto.
St. Louis captured the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player and Brodeur took home his second consecutive Vezina Trophy as outstanding goaltender.
St. Louis, a Calder Cup finalist in 1998 and an AHL All-Star in 1999, joins Jose Theodore (2002) and Brett Hull (1991) as recent AHL graduates to be named NHL MVP.
Just days after winning the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay, St. Louis was also presented with the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's scoring leader for the 2003-04 season -- the first AHL alum to win that award since Dickie Moore in 1959 -- and the Lester B. Pearson Award as the outstanding player as voted by the NHL Players' Association.
Brodeur's second straight Vezina win makes it four of the last five years that an AHL grad has claimed the trophy. Jose Theodore won in 2002 and Olaf Kolzig took the honor in 2000. Brodeur recorded his NHL-record ninth straight 30-win season for New Jersey in 2003-04.
Andrew Raycroft of the Boston Bruins won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie, edging out fellow AHL grads Trent Hunter and Michael Ryder for the honor. Raycroft played three seasons (2000-03) with the AHL's Providence Bruins before backstopping Boston to a division title in 2003-04.
AHL alumni have taken three of the last four Calder Trophies, as Raycroft follows Barret Jackman (2003) and Evgeni Nabokov (2001).
Detroit's Kris Draper captured the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL's outstanding defensive forward, the third former AHL'er to grab that award in the last four years after Michael Peca (2002) and John Madden (2001).
And John Tortorella, who earlier this week became just the fourth man in history to win both a Calder Cup and a Stanley Cup as a head coach, claimed the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's coach of the year. Tortorella is the sixth former AHL head coach in the last seven seasons to win the award, following Bob Francis (2002), Bill Barber (2001), Joel Quenneville (2000), Jacques Martin (1999) and Pat Burns (1998).
Five-sixths of the 2003-04 NHL All-Rookie Team consists of AHL alumni, including goaltender Andrew Raycroft, defenseman John-Michael Liles and forwards Trent Hunter, Michael Ryder and Ryan Malone.
AHL graduates making the NHL's annual All-Star Teams include First Team All-Stars Martin Brodeur, Zdeno Chara and Martin St. Louis; and Second Team All-Star Roberto Luongo.
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