(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars) This is not strictly a Texas Stars story, but it is very much an AHL story. Each chapter of the PWHA announced their nominees for the 2026 Masterton Trophy this morning. The Bill Masterton Trophy is award each year to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. The Detroit chapter has nominated Dominik Shine, the inaugural winner of the Bruce Boudreau Award . The smile on my face when I learned that the player we had identified last year as the most outstanding on an American Hockey League contract was receiving an NHL award nomination could have lit up a city. In Shine, the concepts of perseverance and dedication befitting the Masterton Award nominee were self-evident. An undrafted signee in 2017, Shine has played nine seasons with the Griffins and earned an NHL contract last spring. Since then, he continued to play in Grand Rapids and earned the captaincy as they had one of th...