Springfield, Massachusetts. …The American Hockey League announced today Jacob MacDonald Colorado Hawks Winner Eddie Shore Award As an outstanding defender in the AHL season 2024-25.
The award is voted by coaches, players and media members representing each of the league’s 32 cities.
MacDonald rewrites AHL records in 2024-25, scoring 31 goals, the most ever in league's 89-year history. He added 24 assists, led all AHL Blueliners with 55 points, and scored at a high point in his career, and scored 24 points plus/minus, ranking tenth in the entire league. MacDonald scored 13 times in the Power Game and won five wins for the Eagles, who led the AHL offensively (3.47 goals per game) and tied for fourth place on the way to winning their first Pacific Division title this season (2.57 goals per game).
MacDonald won a 10-year professional player in Portland, Oregon, and was selected as the AHL All-Star Game in 2024-25, his third playoff All-Star Game after he won first-team honors in the 2017-18 season and second in 2019-20. MacDonald scored a total of 99 goals in 340 professional AHL games – tied for seventh by AHL defense, with 149 assists and 248 points. MacDonald, a Cornell University unavailable, also skated with Florida, Colorado and the National Hockey League in San Jose, with 10 goals and 17 assists.
The award was first awarded by AHL in 1958-59 Eddie Shoreis a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the American Hockey League Hall of Fame, who are widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of hockey. Shore won a total of seven Calder Cups in his career, two of which are Buffalo Bisons general managers and five as long-time owners of Springfield Indians. Previous Eddie Coast Award winners include Steve Kraftcheck (1959), Bob McCaugh (1961, '67), Al Arbor (1965), Jim Morrison (1966), Noel price (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), TJ Brennan (2014, '16), Jake Bean (2020), Jordan Gross (2022), Christian Voranen (2023) and Kyle Capobianco (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.
The winner of the 2024-25 Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award (Distinguished Goalkeeper) will be announced on Wednesday.
