American Hockey Coaches Association announces eight individual award winners for 2025
The American Hockey Coaches Association has announced the slate of recipients of its most prestigious awards for 2025.
Six of the eight individuals being recognized will be honored at the 2025 AHCA Convention in Naples, Fla., scheduled for May 4-6, 2025. The recipients of the John Mariucci Award, presented to secondary school coaches, and the Jim Fullerton Award, presented to a non-coach, will be presented at separate events to be announced.
JOHN MACINNES AWARD: Established by AHCA in 1982 to honor former MTU coach, John MacInnes. This award recognizes those people who have shown a great concern for amateur hockey. The recipients have had high winning percentages, as well as outstanding graduating percentages among their former players. The winners of this award have helped young men grow not only as hockey players, but also more importantly, as men.
2025 Recipient: Andy Murray, Western Michigan University, Europe, NHL, Team Canada
Andy Murray has enjoyed a unique level of success in amateur and professional hockey in a career that spanned a half century. The Manitoba native began in junior hockey and went on to success in Europe, in the National Hockey League, with Team Canada and at Western Michigan University. His professional career covered two decades in which he was an assistant coach with Philadelphia, Minnesota and Winnipeg before serving as head coach with Los Angeles and St. Louis. When he left the Kings, he was the winningest coach in the team’s history.
He was hired by Western Michigan University in 2011 and had a record of 167-156-34 in 10 seasons, six of them with winning records. His best season came in 2016-17 when he went 22-13-5 and was named the recipient of the NCHC’s Herb Brooks Coach of the Year Award.
His record as a head coach for Team Canada is particularly impressive as he led Canada to World Championship gold three times, the first coach in IIHF history to do so. He also led Canada to six golds in Spengler Cup competition. For his efforts on the international stage, he was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2012.
His three children have all excelled in hockey. Sarah played at Minnesota Duluth, coached the Unified Korean squad in the 2018 Olympics and is currently the U19 head coach at Shattuck St. Mary’s (which all three Murray children attended). Jordy played at Wisconsin and after a successful professional career is now on the staff at Michigan Tech. Brady played at North Dakota and in Europe and was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings.
