Atlantic Youth Hockey League

AYHL Alumnus Named AHL MVP

Release Date : 4/17/2015

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. – The Atlantic Youth Hockey League and the Philadelphia Junior Flyers are pleased to announce that alumnus forward Brian O’Neill (Yardley, Pa.) was voted the winner of the Les Cunningham Award as the American Hockey League’s Most Valuable Player for the 2014-15 season.

Coaches, players and members of the media in each of the league’s 30 cities vote on the award.

Heading into the AHL’s final weekend of regular season play, O’Neil has scored 22 goals, and an AHL-leading 56 assists, for 78 points in 69 games. The 78 points lead the AHL, good for ten more than his nearest competitor. O’Neill also leads all forwards with a plus-28 rating and is tied for the AHL lead with 26 power-play points. O’Neill strung together three separate scoring streaks of at least seven games.

Named to 2015 AHL All-Star Game but unable to participate due to injury, O’Neill was named a Second Team AHL All-Star after leading the Manchester Monarchs to their first Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the AHL’s regular-season points champion.

O’Neill played two seasons of Midget 18U with the Junior Flyers, tallying sixty-six points in thirty-four AYHL games. The Chicago Steel (USHL) drafted the Yardley, Pennsylvania native in the 13^th round of the 2007 USHL Entry Draft, where has was named to the USHL All-Rookie team after averaging a point per game in the 2007-08 season.

O’Neill then moved on to Yale University where the high-scoring forward picked up eight individual awards including ECAC All-Rookie Team (2008-09), ECAC First Team All-Star (2010-11, & 2011-12) and Ivy League Player of the Year (2011-2012). O’Neill finished his career at Yale as the second-highest scorer in school history. O’Neill would sign a free agent contract with Los Angeles on March 15, 2012 and has scored 52 goals and 90 assists in 190 AHL games, all with Manchester.

The AHL’s most valuable award honors the late Les Cunningham, a member of the AHL Hall of Fame who was a five-time league All-Star and three-time Calder Cup Champion with the Cleveland Barons.