Texas Stars Forward Mavrik Bourque Wins AHL MVP

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

In a surprise move, in terms of timing but not result, the AHL announced this evening that Texas Stars forward Mavrik Bourque is the 2023-24 winner of the AHL's MVP award, officially the Les Cunningham Award.

Scott Howson was in the building this evening to award the trophy, which is usually announced on a Friday and was slated to be announced tomorrow at 2 PM CT. Personally, I thought Howson was here to award the Sollenberger, given to the league's top point scorer. MVP honors, instead, were the order of the evening.

Bourque is the first scoring champion to also win MVP since Chicago’s Kenny Agostino claimed both in 2016-17.

The last time Texas had a league MVP winner was Travis Morin's 2014 campaign. That year, Curtis McKenzie also won the Rookie of the Year, as Logan Stankoven did today as well for Texas. That pairing was the last time that the same team had both the MVP and RotY.

Bourque's season was just exceptional wire-to-wire. He jumped out front early and never looked back. His 77 points are second only to Morin's 88 point season in Stars' history.

In all honesty, the regular season point count probably stops there in the AHL because Bourque is destined for the NHL this coming year. Enjoy him while you can, Texas fans.