Texas Stars Logan Stankoven Wins AHL Rookie of the Year

(Credit: Ross Bonander/Texas Stars)

The inevitability of news this big doesn't make it any less exciting. The AHL announced this afternoon that Logan Stankoven, Texas' spitfire forward, has been named the winner of the league's Rookie of the Year trophy. Stankoven, 21, compiled 57 points (24-33=57) in 47 games, including six power play goals, 20 power play points, three game-winning goals and a plus-9 rating.

Stankoven has, quite rightly, been recalled to Dallas since February 24th. He earned 14 points in 24 games with Dallas this season. Notably, he is still eligible for the NHL's rookie of the year award, the Calder Trophy, next season.

A Texas player has twice won the award before. Texas captain Curtis McKenzie won in 2014 and Riley Damiani captured the award in 2021. In McKenzie's season, the Stars went on to win the Calder Cup fueled by his offense along with linemates Travis Morin, now the Stars' assistant coach, and Brendan Ranford.

Even with two prior winners, Stankoven's season was impressive and stood on its own, without comparison to McKenzie's or Damiani's. Of course, any forward is only as good as his linemates and it's only fitting that McKenzie was on Stankoven's line for much of the season, driving those point totals higher. Mavrik Bourque, the league's leading point scorer this season, was his pivot all year. There's one last piece of hardware to be awarded tomorrow, the league MVP trophy, and Bourque is the odds-on favorite.