Springfield, Massachusetts. …The American Hockey League announced today Michael Dipietro Providence Bruins is Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award As an outstanding goalkeeper for the 2024-25 season.
The award is voted by coaches, players and media members representing each of the league’s 32 cities.
Starting in 2024-25, Dipietro is one of the most important goalkeepers in the league, starting the season, allowing two goals or fewer seven consecutive times and ending with a 9-1-1 record in his last 11 decisions. All in all, Dipietro scored 26-8-5 in 40 games in Providence, ranked second in the league in victory, second in savings percentage (.927), third in average goals (2.05), while establishing career best results in all three categories. Dipietro won his first AHL All-Star Classic in February – he won part of the CCM Top Goalkeeper Award in the Skills of the Year – and he was named the first AHL All-Star last week.
Dipietro appeared in 145 AHL games in his six professional seasons with Providence, Abbotsford and Utica and posted an 84-42-13 record with a 2.54 GAA, .914 interest rate and nine closed-offs. The 25-year-old Windsor, Ontario, was drafted by Vancouver in the third round of the 2017 NHL Draft and made three career appearances in the NHL, all with the Canucks. He was acquired by the Boston Brown Bear through trade on October 27, 2022.
The Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award, first presented in 1984, was awarded to former General Manager of the Pittsburgh Penguin Baz Bastienhe scored four seasons in the Pittsburgh Hornets (1945-49) in the AHL before suffering an eye injury at the end of his career. Bastien will continue to serve as head coach and general manager of the Hornets and bring them to the 1967 Calder Cup championship. Previous winners of the award include Jon Casey (1985), Sam St. Laurent (1986), Mark Laforest (1987, '91), Felix Potvin (1992), Corey Hirsch (1993), Jim Carey (1995), Manny Legace (1996), Martin Billon (1999), Dwayne Roloson (2001), Jason LaBarbera (2004, '07), Ryan Miller (2005), Michael Leighton (2008), Cory Schneider (2009), Jonathan Bernier (2010), Jack Allen (2014), Peter Budajie (2016), Troy Grosenick (2017), Alex Nedeljkovic (2019), Kaapo Kahkonen (2020), Logan Thompson (2021), Dustin Wolf (2022, '23) and Hunter Shepard (2024).
Since 1936, the American Hockey League has continued to be the top development league for all 32 national hockey league teams. Nearly 90% of players in NHL games are AHL graduates, and the American Hockey League has been more than 100 members of the Hockey Hall of Fame for years.
2024 – The winner of the 25th Dudley Garrett Memorial Award (Distinguished Rookie) will be announced on Thursday.
