Mavrik Bourque had a good idea he’d be winning the Les Cunningham award as the American Hockey League MVP.
He had led the league in scoring with 77 points in 71 games. Roughly a week before the AHL announcement he was named an AHL First-Team All-Star, alongside fellow Texas/Dallas forward Logan Stankoven.
“You never know if you are gonna get picked, but when I saw I was on the first-team all-star, I had a pretty good idea,” Bourque said. “At that point I knew I had a chance to win the MVP. And honestly, it was my main goal this year, to be the best player in this league. I couldn’t control whether I was up or down (in the NHL), but I could control that I was doing the right thing and I could prove I was ready for next level by simply being best player at this level.”
Bourque has a high-draft pedigree, he was taken 30th in the 2020 NHL Draft, but he went from a middling AHL player to the best one this season.
He had 47 points in 70 games as a rookie and struggled with consistency during the 2022-23 season.
So what changed?
