Manitoba Moose defenceman Tyrel Bauer won 2026 Yanick Dupré Memorial Award as AHL Man of the Year

For as much as Manitoba Moose defenceman Tyrel Bauer does for his teammates on the ice, he does just as much in the community. He was recognized by his teammates during the club’s end-of-season awards and now by the AHL, having been named the winner of the Yanick Dupré Memorial Award as the league’s Man of the Year.

Bauer follows former Moose captain Jimmy Oligny, who won the award in 2023, meaning Manitoba has produced two winners in the last four seasons. The only other Moose player to receive the honour was Jimmy Roy in 2003.

Here is the release from the team:

This award has been presented annually since 1998 to an AHL player for his outstanding contributions to his local community and charitable organizations. The Yanick Dupré Memorial Award winner is selected by the AHL and representatives from IOA and American Specialty from among 32 individual team Man of the Year honorees.

Bauer is a two-time recipient of the Moose’s IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year team honor, having grown lasting relationships in the Winnipeg community. Notably, Bauer’s work with the Kinship and Foster Family Network of Manitoba allowed several foster families over the course of the season to attend Moose games, receive gift bags from the team and meet Bauer after the game. Bauer remains especially close with a young fan named Noah, whom Bauer and the Moose gifted with a pair of custom-modified gloves that would allow Noah to play his favorite sport.

Bauer served as a coach for a U-11 boys’ team at the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy, a play-based program designed to increase attendance as well as high-school graduation rates in socially and economically challenged schools in Winnipeg. He also made a series of appearances at events for Project 11 – the True North Youth Foundation’s initiative in honor of former Jets and Moose player Rick Rypien – to help educate youth on the importance of mental health, including speaking at the foundation’s annual gala.

Bauer’s additional community work this season included a classroom visit to St.Amant, a non-profit organization which supports more than 5,000 Manitobans with developmental disabilities, autism and acquired brain injury. He also participated in several full-team volunteering efforts, including holiday gift drives, school reading appearances, autograph sessions and more. And in January, Bauer and his teammates played pick-up hockey with the winners of the Moose Backyard Rink Contest.

A 24-year-old native of Cochrane, Alta., Bauer has played 214 games with the Moose over four pro seasons after being selected by the Jets in the sixth round of the 2020 NHL Draft.

The AHL’s annual Man of the Year award is named after the late Yanick Dupré, who passed away in 1997 at the age of 24 following a 16-month battle with leukemia. A second-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1991, Dupré played four seasons in the AHL with the Hershey Bears and was an AHL All-Star in 1995.