Springfield, Massachusetts …American Hockey League announces Manitoba Moose defenseman today Tyrell Ball has been selected as winner Yannick Dupre Memorial Award 2025-26 season.
The award has been presented annually to an AHL player since 1998 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the local community and charitable organizations. The Yannick Dupree Memorial Award winner is selected from 32 individual Team Man of the Year honorees by representatives from the AHL, IOA and American Specialty.
Ball is a two-time Moose IOA/American Professional AHL Team of the Year honoree and has developed lasting relationships with the Winnipeg community. Notably, Ball’s partnership with Relatives Manitoba and the Foster Family Network allows several foster families to attend Moose games during the season, receive gift bags from the team and meet Ball after the game. Ball maintained an especially close relationship with a young fan named Noah, who Ball and Moose gifted him with a pair of custom-made gloves so Noah could compete in his favorite sport.
Ball coached the U-11 boys’ team at the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy, a competition-based program designed to increase attendance and high school graduation rates in Winnipeg’s socially and economically disadvantaged schools. He has also made numerous appearances at “Project 11” events — the True North Youth Foundation’s initiative honoring former Jets and Moose player Rick Rypien — to help educate young people about the importance of mental health, including speaking at the foundation’s annual gala.
Ball’s additional community work this season includes classroom visits to St. Amant, a non-profit organization that supports more than 5,000 Manitobans with developmental disabilities, autism and acquired brain injuries. He also participated in a number of team-wide volunteer activities, including holiday gift donations, school book clubs, autograph signings, and more. In January, Ball and his teammates played hockey with the winner of the Moose Backyard Rink competition.
Ball, 24, a native of Cochrane, Alta., played 214 games with the Moose in four professional seasons after being selected by the Jets in the sixth round of the 2020 NHL draft.
The AHL Man of the Year Award is named for the late Yanick Dupré, who died in 1997 at age 24 after a 16-month battle with leukemia. Dupree was a second-round draft pick by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1991, played four seasons in the AHL with the Hershey Bears, and was an AHL All-Star in 1995.
The American Hockey League, which has been in operation since 1936 and celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, continues to serve as the top developmental league for all 32 National Hockey League teams. Nearly 90% of players who compete in NHL games are AHL graduates, and over the years, the American Hockey League has had more than 100 honorary members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
