SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League announced today that Scooter Vaughan of the Chicago Wolves has been selected as the winner of the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award as the 2017-18 IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year.

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 Dupre Memorial Award winner is selected by the AHL and representatives from IOA and American Specialty from among 30 individual team Man of the Year honorees.

Front and center at Wolves events like charity auctions, fan meet-and-greets, hockey clinics and more, Vaughan continues to build lasting relationships that are a testament to the impact he is making on the Chicagoland community. Vaughan has an authentic, outgoing and charismatic personality that helps drive the efforts of Chicago Wolves Charities, the organization’s charitable arm that contributes to a wide variety of local causes.

Among those charities is Kids for Camps, which Vaughan himself created with a mission to build brighter futures for kids through participation in sports in order to realize their true potential, regardless of their financial situations. And mindful of his own upbringing, Vaughan also founded Swaggy Clause, a line of Christmas ornaments and sweaters targeted towards African-American families, with a portion of proceeds going back to Chicago Wolves Charities.

A 29-year-old native of southern California and the only child of a chemical engineer father and an attorney mother, Vaughan spent four years at the University of Michigan developing passions ranging from business to music; he is an aspiring guitarist and entrepreneur in addition to his hockey career that has seen him play 293 AHL games over the last five seasons with Chicago and Bridgeport.

The AHL’s annual Man of the Year award is named after the late Yanick Dupre, 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, Dupre played four seasons in the AHL with the Hershey Bears and was an AHL All-Star in 1995.

In operation since 1936, the American Hockey League continues to serve as the top development league for all 31 National Hockey League teams. More than 87 percent of all players competing in the NHL are AHL graduates, and through the years the American Hockey League has been home to more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. The 2017-18 regular season ends Sunday, and then 16 clubs will continue to vie for the league’s coveted championship trophy when the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs get underway next week.