DeFazio Nominated for AHL's Man of the Year Award

Mar 30, 2017

DeFazio Named the Stars’ 2016-17 IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year

CEDAR PARK, Texas – The Texas Stars are proud to announce that Brandon DeFazio has been named the team’s winner of the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year award for his outstanding contributions to the Central Texas community during the 2016-17 season.

DeFazio has been the team’s leading member in the community this season in a variety of efforts for the Texas Stars Foundation. This is the third different team in DeFazio’s AHL career that he has been nominated for the league’s Yanick Dupre Memorial Award honor as the AHL’s overall Man of the Year (Utica, Providence), and his fifth nomination in his career overall.

DeFazio was the face of the Stars in their annual Science of Hockey program throughout local elementary schools. He appeared in nine different classrooms this season to explain to fourth and fifth-grade students the role that science plays in the game of hockey. In February, the Texas forward delivered 500 flowers on Valentine’s Day to both staff and patients at Cedar Park Regional Medical Center, plus filmed a short video that was used as part of the Stars’ annual Pink in the Rink weekend.

On DeFazio’s first day back from a 12-day road trip, DeFazio appeared at two youth hockey practices in the Austin area with seven and eight-year-old players working on basic fundamentals and drills with their coaches. Those particular events are just highlights along with the multiple full-team events DeFazio has participated in, and the undocumented casual interactions with fans and their children he constantly displays.

DeFazio is now one of 30 finalists for the AHL’s 2016-17 Yanick Dupre Memorial Award, honoring the overall IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year. The league award is named after the former Hershey Bears forward and AHL All-Star who died in 1997 following a 16-month battle with leukemia. The winner of the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award will be announced by the American Hockey League at a later date.

The Texas Stars are the primary development affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, and are currently playing their eighth season at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Full season, 24-game, 12-game and six-game ticket packages for the 2016-17 campaign are on sale now.  For more information, call (512) GO-STARS (467-8277) or visit TexasStars.com.